Nine Tenets for Retail in 2013
Nearly 30,000 thousand people gathered at the National Retail Federation’s Retail BIG Show 2013 to hear from thought-leaders on the challenges and opportunities in retail. Here are key tenets from the conversations.
more on retail:
- the retail organization of the future
- six best practices in retail
- brand experience briefs (video briefings on new and interesting restaurant and retail concepts)
- build your brand with a cohesive customer experience
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Transcript:
Online retail has matured
Online retail is the pawn that has become the queen.
According to Forrester Research,
online has grown to 9% of retail sales and is projected to generate $327 billion in sales in 2016
According to Shop.org,
270MM people shopped in 2012 holiday season
129MM shopped on Cyber Monday
In the digital world, our brand can be much bigger than our footprint. Wherever [our customer] is, we’ll be there.
– Thomas Belk, Chairman and CEO, Belk, Inc.
Mobile holds even more potential
Social and mobile aren’t emerging technologies. The revolution is already over – the customer is in control.
According to Whale Shark Media,
there’s been a 51.9% growth in time spent on mobile
Forrester Research predicts
the $5.5 billion spent in retail (media, CE, apparel) mobile commerce in 2012 to grow to $24.5 in 2017
Capability in new areas, particularly mobile, is mission critical. It can’t be an afterthought. We must invest in it to get ahead of the technology and the growth curve.
– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation
Mobile is no longer just a channel. It’s not a one-way pipeline of content to consumers – it is an intrinsic part of consumer behavior. — Susan Jurevics, SVP, Global Retail CRM and Brand Marketing, Sony Corporation of America
Showrooming
must be embraced
The question is not how do you defend against [showrooming], but how do you leverage it in your business model.
According to Forrester Research,
37% of smart phone owners plan to showroom more in the future
47% of men aged 18-34 plan to show room more
so, you need to have a price matching strategy
and we will see more UPP (unilateral pricing policies)
Showroomers don’t end at the sale – they’re active consumers. 58% visit online communities 1+/day and half write reviews (positive ones.) They’re not your enemy. — Jill Puleri, VP, Global Industry Leader – Retail, Global Business Services, IBM
Organizational silos are hindering progress
Channel blur: Consumers are going to force you to match prices online. Online and in-store merchandising groups are going to have to talk, compare notes, require coordination.
– Cotter Cunningham, CEO, WhaleShark Media
CEOs are pushing for company-wide digital strategy, but digital departments still often operate independently.
— Vicki Cantrell, Shop.org Executive Director and NRF Senior Vice President of Communities
Business beats government
Charity alone won’t save the world; we need business and capitalism.
This [retail] industry is the greatest engine of growth in the U.S. today. We offer hope, opportunity, and career progression.
– Bill Simon, CEO, Walmart
The world needs a lot of care and compassion and business is singularly positioned to deliver on that.
– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods
Business is the most creative force in the world.
If we’re waiting on government, we’re waiting on a process that can’t act with the same speed as business.
– Bill Simon, CEO, Walmart
Retailers shouldn’t just produce for the middle and upper classes; “the third world is waiting for retail.”
– Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Employees and culture should be priority #1
Think of labor not as a unit cost, but as truly the heart and soul of business.
– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods
If content is king, culture is checkmate – you need the right people within the company on the bus.
– Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics
The most important brand building tool of all is the ability to inspire our people – not only about what we’re doing but why, and getting them to exceed expectations in way that’s authentic and real.
– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation
Excellence is tremendous amount of fun; mediocrity is not. People really want to work with great people and achieve great things.
— Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO, The Container Store
The ecosystem of stakeholders is powerful
Shared Conversation concept: The conversation is owned by consumers, peers, retailers, and countless influencers, bloggers, stylists, media critics and more.
— Susan Jurevics, SVP, Global Retail CRM and Brand Marketing, Sony Corporation of America
“The market” is more than the consumer – it includes employees, customers, distributors, etc. All vote and shape our brand everyday. This requires new ways of working together against shared value.
– Allison Lewis, Senior Vice President, Marketing, North America Division, The Coca-Cola Company
When you operate with this stakeholder view, the universe conspires to assist you.
— Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO, The Container Store
The opportunity is to become more of who are you and realize your full potential. Many businesses aren’t exploring the full potential of their connections with stakeholders.
– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods
Innovate or die
Relentless innovation will continue:
flash sales ? daily deals ? subscriptions ?
curated commerce / distributed commerce / crowdsourcing commerce
— Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Any business that embraces business as status quo…is literally facing a collision course with time.
– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation
Capitalism
re-imagined:
Reimagine what is possible with business. There is nothing more powerful than the imagination and creativity of individual team members.
– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods
It has never been more important to push for innovation at every level – we must do everything to push for self renewal, reinvention, a new level of surprise and delight with our customers.
– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation
Brick and mortar is not dead
Retail at its basic level is individual connection.
Your customer engagements will be your “30-second spots.”
–Tom Feltenstein, CEO/Founder of Tom Feltenstein’s Power Marketing Academy
Physical retail still has a lot of promising stories that will continue to grow and drive industry in the future.
— Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research