Multipronged approach

It goes without saying the tremendous growth seen in retail online sales. However this has resulted in parallel companies (stores, website, catalog) operating within a retail organization which seem to be sometimes disconnected in their approach. Some retailers have integrated these functions to an extent in terms of look and feel. The question however is whether is that sufficient to stay competitive? I came across an article which talks about some of the best practices implemented by retailers ahead of the curve in the multi-channel world. Below are listed some of the key observations

1. Cost Effectiveness: Carrying the right assortment in your stores and offering wider ones in your online store can help cut down costs and at the same time provide opportunities for customers to buy the items. Penny's is cited as a good example of that "What are the secrets to Penney's success? For one, its Website offers almost three times the number of products available in the merchant's stores. This gives the company a cost-effective way to sell bigger-ticket, often slower-turning items."
2. Flexibility: Being able to fulfill customer demand from across channels gives the customers flexibility and the retailer the brand value of being customer centric. The article talks about some retailers using drop shipping as a means to drive that - "That kind of channel inventory flexibility requires a willingness to ship (or allow customer pick up) from different channels to make the sale and satisfy the customer. Some direct businesses are gaining significant sales with drop-shipped product. One major retailer with direct sales exceeding $200 million has 20% of its sales drop-shipped from its merchandise suppliers." From a retail systems perspective, having a common master data, inventory planning and replenishment system can help achieve this flexibility . The article mentions about the effect of inflexibility - "An inability to move or ship product from other channels to make the sale means inventory is frozen in one channel when it's needed in another. You need to aggregate or roll up inventory needed in a specified time frame ito place purchase orders and plan receipts. "
3. Uniformity: Often you go into a store and you dont find the same deals as you see online. Many retailers provide a loyalty program only in their stores. This approach doesnt provide the customer a uniform experience which is key to building loyalty - "Returns and customer loyalty programs should also operate across channels" and how to achieve this - "The key to cross-channel consistency is having single operational data stores and data warehouses across all channels for access to cross-channel product assortment"

Just another manic monday?

As online retail traffic continues its upward trend with every holiday season, new business terms keep getting defined to explain the phenomenon. The latest addition to the list is "Cyber Monday". Created by the National Retail Foundation it represents the first monday after the Thanksgiving weekend when consumers return to work and spend time shopping online to make purchases for the holiday season. I came across a very interesting article on how cyber monday sales can be boosted by not just online ads but by complementing them with non online ads. The article says - "One limitation in the search space is volume. There are only as many searches as there are people multiplied by the queries they do." The publisher of the article found that - "20% of all search volume can be correlated to TV GRP volume. So, while we've always known that TV creates an interest that search can fulfill, this gives us sufficient evidence that it creates a volume of interest which can substantially move the impression needle, and therefore increase CTR and potentially CVR for your campaigns". So in a time where ad spends are progressively shifting to online media, looks like there is still some steam that can be driven off of traditional media to drive traffic to online sites.

Less is more

I came across a very interesting white paper by Kaon Interactive on how to create a "wow" factor in the retail customer's experience. The paper begins with citing some very common obstructions to achieving this in the retail stores. A summary is given below

1. When too many product features or categories are available, customers find it difficult to understand and evaluate options. This results in them either choosing the cheapest product as price is something they can easily evaluate. This leads to them being dissatisfied at a later stage due to lack of features.
2. The space available on the shelf is insufficient to provide a informative presentation of the product assortment to the customer leading to an underinformed customer
3. While overcoming customers’ inconsistencies in decision making and physical space limitations are both challenges for retailers, finding the sales support to help customers make a purchase, and more importantly, make the right purchase is perhaps the retailer’s greatestconcern.

The paper talks about generating a positive emotional response in the customer while shopping - "Emotional response is also kindled when consumers better understand and appreciate the product they are about to purchase. While providing product information that details how a product is used, or clearly explains why a feature is present sounds obvious, it’sactually a rare occurrence in the retail world"

The first factor cited by the paper is corroborated in a recent presentation "Re-imageering Retail" given by Thom Blischok of Information Resources Inc. As per Mr. Blischok "84% of shoppers are fully satisfied with 23% of the merchandise at a typical store". This is also seen in terms of a trend towards "express" store formats which is expected to "grow from around 20 locations today to 4,000 by 2010"

Crumbling Wal?

For the last decade or so the retail landscape has been dominated by the Bentonville giant. Numbers from as recent as 2004 reflect the hold it has on retail market. But like changes in every field, the one in retail also came swooping and W*M has some challenges on its plate. I came across a very good article by Paula Rosenblum of Retail Systems Research on the challenges facing the giant. Some key observations cited by Ms. Rosenblum that I found interesting were pertaining to how retailers have responded to W*M's presence - "In a post Wal-Mart world, retailers could not differentiate on operational efficiencies, or selling commodities. Wal-Mart owned that space. Retailers like Target, who made hay by selling really cool stuff cheap (or somehow making commodities seem cool), Costco who made warehouse shopping chic, and Whole Foods, who gained its customers trust by being at the forefront of eco-friendly and healthy, started knocking the ball out of the park by NOT being like Wal-Mart". The article goes on to recommend how W*M can use IT to bring back its "mojo". One very interesting part of this recommendation was the use of RFID instore to track stock movements. However given some of the technological (hardware) problems related to RFID, I am not sure how practical that is. Only the future will tell if the Wal's crumbling or the Mojo's Risin.....

Glocalization

A very interesting report on the future of Retail in 2015 was published jointly by TNS Retail Forward and Retail practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The report talks about 2 distinct groups of people emerging based on the age profiles - the Baby Boomers: 65 and above who will still go for the big box retailers and the The Millenials: 35 years of age who are more environmentally conscious, technologically savy and purchase based on lifestyle. Another interesting prediction is the growing diversity in the population where more than half of the population under 25 identifying themselves as non-whites. The study talks about how "The 'one-size-fits-all' approach of the 1980s is not going to work as the population becomes more diverse and tech savvy during the next decade.'' The report talks about trend as "The best way to define this trend is through the term 'glocalization:' retailers will need to serve customers across major geographic, cultural, legislative and regulatory boundaries, all while catering to local tastes, traditions, lifestyles and economies."

Active Design

Retail consumers are a changing bunch and its very important for a retailer to stay on top of what her choices are and how to make her "Act" on those choices. A very interesting article by Jonathan Dodd of G2 Worldwide published in the Hub Magazine delves into the idea of "Active Design".

The Need: Mr. Dodd says that experience based shopping can no longer be restricted to the high end retailers like Printemps, Slefridges etc. "....in a world where virtually every product category is suffering from brand proliferation and time-pressured shoppers are being enticed by ever more sophisticated retail offerings, effective design has to do more. It must work for the benefit of the shopper as well as the retailer and brand owner. It has to sell actively." An interesting statistic provided in the article states "According to POPAI, supermarket shoppers are exposed to 1.6 pieces of instore material every second. And yet less than one in five is noticed"

In the article, Mr Dodd enunciates some basic principles of "Active Design" through the example of Apple stores and says that the same idea can apply to supermarket stores which carry a much wider assortment.

Shopping Portfolio

I alluded to the US retail market possibly moving to more innovative store formats driven by greater diversification of the customer base due to more varied life style choices in my previous post. I found a very interesting observation made by Brian Gildenberg of MVI in this article featured on the Hub magazine. Mr Gildenberg explains how Tesco could be capitalizing on the rapid change in the US markets indicated by the following 4 trends
"1) The apparent end of retail consolidation; 2) fragmentation of consumers and retail formats; 3) shoppers using a portfolio of formats to meet their needs; and 4)natural foods, energy efficient processes and an environmental message." Each of the trends are discussed with insightful details but the part which struck the most was an interesting statistic
"store sizes are becoming more polarized. When you aggregate stores that are more than 100,000 square feet and stores that are less than 15,000 square feet, both are actually growing markedly faster than the market average".
This might indicate that there are big store formats getting created to cater to a certain segment while more innovative formats are getting created at an equal pace to cater to a different demographic. A unique buying pattern is seen to be emerging where a customer uses a collection (portfolio) of stores to meet their requirements -
"The continued proliferation of the U.S. retail landscape into a variety of formats is leading to what we call a “portfolio theory” of shopping behavior. A typical shopper might visit a combination of club store, supermarket, specialty grocer and chain drug store to fulfill a variety of specific needs based on which format meets each need best."

Climbing the Wal

As Walmart's same store sales growth has slowed down, some interesting insights have been done on the reasons behind it. I found one such insight on Reveries.com website based on an article in Wall Street Journal by Gary Williams. One thing that I found interesting was "The pricing gap between Wal-Mart and rivals has narrowed, and more customers are now choosing convenience over wading through a supercenter". I used to wonder if I was the only one who got lost and confused in a gigantic WalMart super center. There was just too much signage and the one in my neighbourhood was so crowded that it would be difficult to find an associate to help out. Which brings in another interesting point - on an average (as per a study which I need to dig up and link it here) a shopper spends 22 mins in a Wal Mart store but how much of that is spent searching and how much is spent doing aisle crossover (which is what the super centers are counting on to up their avg top line sale)? I wonder if this is a fundamental issue with the supercenter format itself? As life becomes faster (can it get any more faster???), if its time for more smaller lifestyle dedicated convinience based formats? Do I see a Tesco lurking somewhere!!!!!