The F-Word thats shaping retail!

One of the things I love the most about working with retailers, is it’s an area which is so diverse, and that we all engage with day to day as consumers. Indeed, my wife thinks it’s hilarious that I consider retail my specialist subject, given I have zero interest in shopping for myself! That said, we all need to buy things from time to time, and my experiences as a consumer have often influenced the way I’ve approached prospects and customers.

With that in mind, when thinking about topics for this little mini-series of blogs I naturally turned to my own recent experiences. Following on from my blog a few weeks ago, on the “C-word in retail that everybody’s talking about” (spoiler alert, the C-word is Convenience) I felt it was high time to share with you my thoughts on an area that has come on leaps and bounds in recent times, but still has HUGE room for growth and improvement. Without further ado, drum roll please…. the F-word is FULFILMENT!

Now you might think fulfilment is just a fancy word for delivery, but hear me out on this one people, because this is a thread which seems to be heavily linked to some of the big changes we’ve seen across society, and in retail in recent years.

I guess this wouldn’t be a piece on retail fulfilment without some reference to Amazon, (I’m cringing all ready, as I’m fed up hearing and reading about them, it’s a bit clichéd) as it’s well accepted they’ve changed the way we think about retail. With just a few clicks pretty much anything we could imagine needing can be delivered to our door, within a few hours. It’s this convenience, along with the rise of online/mobile shopping which has changed the shape of retailing forever! But here’s the thing (and to quote the brilliant Tom Goodwin here), “Amazon makes far more money from being a fulfilment company to other vendors’ stock than it does from its own goods.”

The change in retail in the last 15 years has been marked, we’ve gone from a land grab by every retailer under the sun, to the rise of online retail with a whole host of new upstart data savvy brands and finally to a situation where the world’s biggest consumer goods providers (I didn’t say retailers!) – Alibaba, Amazon & eBay are just gigantic platforms, with awesome fulfilment models bolted on. It’s no wonder we’ve seen the high street come under pressure, the battle ground has been flipped on its head. Or has it?

The rise of online is often quoted as the reason for retail store closures, but to me this is lazy reporting, and misses the point. So, let’s reframe that conversation quickly, yes online shopping has put huge pressure on the high street, but it’s also creating a whole host of opportunities to create new revenues, and to steal market share from your competition. But crucially ONLY if you set up your fulfilment model to meet massively increased consumer requirements/needs!

Here are a couple of quick ways I think our trusty high street brands can thrive by fulfilling our ever-demanding consumer needs:

1) Use the stores!

Ok so this might sound totally obvious, but despite John Lewis leading the way in Christmas 2011, many retailers still haven’t nailed the click and collect process. If I have the choice of ordering from home, and picking up in store vs having something delivered straight to my house, I am ONLY ever going to get of my bum if I feel it’s an easy process when I get to the store. Sadly, I must say most of the times I’ve gone for click and collect, I’ve been left hanging around waiting for ages, or having to queue waiting for more traditional customers to pay/refund/chat to store staff.

The Little Black Dress Phenomenon

Now, if I don’t go to store to pick up an item, I’m not going to spend any more money with that retailer, however if I do I know there’s a chance I’ll be enticed to grab something else. I’ve always called this the “Little black dress phenomenon” (during Christmas party season, people order their outfit online at short notice, and then when picked up their dress, they are duty bound to grab shoes, accessories etc. whilst they’re in-store).

Getting click and collect right has obvious benefits, namely increase in additional cross shopping opportunities, or reduction in delivery and inventory management overheads. However, as I said before, if not done absolutely brilliantly, it has the potential to cause more headaches, than great experiences for shoppers.

2) Embrace the new consumer need for certainty and choice

We live in a world where we can order a car or a takeaway, and watch both arrive via apps on our smart phone, so why is it when I buy a new jacket from a well-known high street brand (which costs considerably more than a takeaway) do I have to sit around for 4 days wondering when it’ll show up, and then find that I missed the delivery company by 5 mins because I had to pop out for a walk with my son? Ok this is an extreme (but true) example and I was sent a “your parcel will arrive between 9am – 1pm” email, but I must be honest I think retail, and their delivery partners can and should up their game, mainly so that I don’t have to rely on my neighbours, or indeed the local delivery office to accept my parcels. I wouldn’t let my neighbours eat my takeaway after all!

Some retailers really excel at delivery, and it’s hardly a surprise it’s the e-commerce wunderkinds who lead here, take Asos which lists SEVEN different delivery choices for shoppers at the checkout, supported by what I understand is an array of different partners. This isn’t a surprise, as an online only retailer, they must be able to meet our new demanding consumer needs. Where once it was fine to just offer home delivery, now it’s got to be at a date, time and location of our choice.

Let’s take this on a step further though, because I think this goes beyond consumer choice, and goes deeper into the change in human behaviour that technology has brought about. Before the rise of the internet, smartphones, tablets etc. we were generally a more patient bunch, but as our expectations have been changed this presents an opportunity for our retail friends, and their delivery partners.

Finally, we’ll look again at that jacket I ordered, and then missed the delivery of…if I’d been able to see where my parcel was on route, and even have a better ETA than a 4-hour window I could have made a quick decision about my plans. If I’d still had to go out, I could have alerted the delivery company, or changed my delivery preferences. This would have had a couple of benefits, firstly I would have had a much better experience, but secondly the delivery company and probably the retailer could have saved some cash from a missed delivery attempt.

I must confess, the latter part of my thinking here about the shift in expectations in our society created by the likes of Uber, and Deliveroo, is 100% stolen/borrowed from a brilliant thought piece I read this week from Tim Andrew, CEO of a cool company I believe is set for huge things in this space the coming years. They’re called Localz, read here Tim setting out his vision for the new Iconomy (individual economy).

Time for a further confession, I’ve got a few topics in mind for my next piece, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you’d like me to explore, so please drop your comments in the section below, and if you’ve enjoyed this like, and share it!

If you're interested in similar content from this mini-series of blogs on retail, then please check out - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/c-word-retail-why-everybody-talking-you-dont-know-yet-ed-armishaw/

And for a few learnings on my last 3 years with Walkbase you can click here - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/after-3-awesome-years-walkbase-im-back-job-market-heres-ed-armishaw/