Retail Survival cannot be guaranteed. Vaccines may save the people, but Retail’s fight for survival goes on.

Retailers who thought they would return to ‘Business as Usual’ were in for a shock. Some found a bounce back and then fell away, others still haven’t seen any form of uptick.?

Even digitally aligned businesses, benefitting from unexpected growth, were surprised by how volumes suddenly decreased when high streets re-opened and removed their lockdown advantage.

Whether we like it or not, though, e-commerce has matured and changed consumer behaviour across all demographics. Adapting and re-adjusting to this new world might not be easy, but it is absolutely essential for retail survival.?

Getting it right could deliver profit and performance growth. Getting it wrong could lead to commercial disaster.?

Which one are you planning for?

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Julian Grindey is an energising and inspirational?MD/COO/Trading Director,?skilled in leading profitable change and transformation, inspiring strategic vision and commercial delivery and in driving retail and digital growth. Proven in delivering exceptional growth from turnarounds and scale up, in key omni-channel operators, including private label and international product sourcing strategy.

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Thanks to the internet and the mobile phone, customers have never had more choice of where or how to shop. The pandemic has accelerated trends leaving many retailers wishing they had thought ‘digital first’ years ago.?

It’s never too late. Understanding the strongest themes and adapting to them is central to survival and success. Here are 8 essential factors a retail leader should think about:

1.?????Digital first agility -?The central message is don’t get left behind by others who are prepared to disrupt their own businesses and make changes before competitors disrupt them. Winners will be the transformers; those who see their business as ‘digital first’, raising the bar every-day on their customer’s experience. A mindset shift that starts in the boardroom.

2.?????Supply chain automation –?is being used as a competitive advantage by e-tailers to control operational costs. Robotics were expensive; taking too long to implement and could only perform single tasks. All that has changed making the investment pay-back compelling. Logistics companies like XPO are showing retail how to combine traditional automation with robotics and some AI to improve responsiveness and reduce costs.

3.?????D2C –?businesses that rely on selling direct to consumer faired relatively well during the pandemic. That is set to continue. Bi-passing the middleman (the retailer) is a strategy that gives the brand control over their customer journey and their data and creates a new layer of competition for retail.

4.?????Open banking –?where consumers use their bank directly to transfer payments to e-tailers whilst having visibility of their balance and using their bank authentication process like fingerprint or face ID for security. This reduces friction in the payment journey, improves loyalty and reduces basket abandonment. Changes are happening fast in this area.

5.?????Reverse logistics –?how retailers tackle this?challenge will impact their profits and the planet. The solution is to see product returns as much more than a post purchase process. Instead look at ways of making it easier for a customer to keep their purchase rather than need to return it. Product quality and web page curation can go a long way to solve this problem.?

6.?????Live-stream -?in a single day Chinese live stream retailer Taobao recorded sales of ￡5.2b in just two hours. This platform is likely to become mainstream as on-line viewers like to interact with slick presentation from social influencers. L’oreal have started to adopt Live stream events to sell cosmetics to Gen Z customers in the west.

7.?????Re-commerce –?fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world?and consumers are aware. To improve sustainability a growing group of retailers are responding by, re-cycling, re-using, renting and re-selling. A sector now worth $64b in USA alone.

8.?????Digital marketplace –?retailers who want to push their brands through new channels or those who want to host brands on theirs, are turning to digital marketplaces as they bring a new speed to market and offer opportunities to test and learn without cost and risk. Scale-ability is almost instant.?

Conclusion

Consumers in different demographics may have different priorities when it comes to on-line shopping, but what unites them all is an intolerance of a sub-standard experience.

As the old cliché goes; ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’ these eight trends that retail leaders need to be aware of can help secure your success.?

As consumers emerge from pandemic and divide their habits between bricks and clicks, we have to ensure the quality of customer experience surpasses even their evolving expectations.?

For those that do there is survival and a future. Those that don’t face extinction.?

Which one are you planning for?

Julian Grindey is a retail leader. He can be contacted on 07969 397916 or at?[email protected]