Where's the Magic?

Maybe I’m getting jaded. I usually look forward to industry conferences with their well-crafted agendas (’Discover the Future of Retail!’; ‘How to Unlock Social Media’; ‘Use AI To Super-Charge Your Business Model’) but lately the only emotion they inspire is crushing disappointment.

Dramatic, but true. While the retail industry is consistently touting new initiatives, technological developments and investment in brilliant consumer experiences, it can be tough to find evidence that the industry is truly innovating. I attend conferences with high hopes that I’ll learn about real change and then realise I’m hearing the same old thing.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

• The promise of omnichannel. Retailers have spent time and money learning about how their customers shop, what their preferences are, and how to deliver what they want in whatever channel they choose. I’ve been a part of that change, working with retailers on digital transformation projects focusing on developing different routes to market. And while most retailers now sell in a variety of places, they still treat them as silos. Customer service isn’t always channel agnostic and returns policies aren’t either (most retailers allow online returns to store, but very few allow you to return a product you bought instore via post).
• Personalisation. Truly, it seems as though the industry has been talking about personalisation since time began. And every year, the promise is made that THIS is the year we see it hit the mainstream. And every year, it isn’t. One of the very basic personalised communications, the birthday email (which we used at several of the brands I worked with), is still not as common as it should be, despite increasing open rates by 50% and conversion rates by 15% on average. So while not every brand can serve up a personalised homepage like Amazon, every single one can ask for a birthdate and send an email.
• Retail media. All the rage, this retail media revenue stream. But it certainly isn’t new. I was talking to a colleague of mine and neither of us could figure out how it’s any different to the co-op advertising all major retailers offered years ago. Today it’s being delivered digitally, while in the past it was shelf talkers or end caps or cover position of the weekly circular, but isn’t it just the same thing? What am I missing?
• And let’s throw an acronym in for good measure. MMM? I heard that in a recent presentation and I had to look it up. It means media mix modelling, or marketing mix modelling. And here I’ve been calling it attribution all this time…

But not all is lost.

There are some genuinely exciting things happening out there, and I might just have to wait a while until I seem them really hit the mainstream, but I’m keeping my eye on:

• How AI will improve customer experience. I have no issue interacting with a smart chatbot if it will actually solve my problem (while they aren’t a retailer, a big shout-out to Octopus Energy here), or considering AI-curated shopping options based on my browsing and purchase history (Sephora does a nice job here, and beauty is the sector to watch as they invest in skin-matching technology and product recommendations to match clinical skincare needs).
• More mainstream use of augmented reality (AR). IKEA and other DIY stores have been creating tools to help visualise a space, but they have always been awkward to use. A lot of them still are, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the ease with which you can build a set of wardrobes with a variety of pre-configured inside elements that automatically populates your shopping cart.
• Enabling human interaction. I'm in the midst of an apartment renovation, a fraught project at the best of times, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the overall experience shopping with Leroy Merlin. They communicate with me via a blend of text, email and phone call, always building on the knowledge of the previous interactions; their staff are trained really well and they - wait for it - actually follow up. I know how hard this is to deliver behind the scenes, and give them a lot of credit for doing it seamlessly.

But back to the conferences. I did learn a few things from the FT’s recent Future of Retail event, which you might have already known but were new to me:

• Snap had an enterprise B2B business called AR Enterprise Services (ARES) which sold its ‘tryon’ technology to apps and websites. But no sooner did I learn this than Snap closed the division, so … nevermind;
• The Royal Horticultural Society launched a very cool app (courtesy of Publicis Sapient) using generative AI that combines visual search and identification, marries it with data available on all of its expert forums and all other content published by the society, and serves it up to the end user in a way that’s easier to consume than it would have been otherwise;
• H&M has 14 million members in its membership programme. Just an acknowledgement that that is a large number.

I know there are great teams working hard to use tools and processes to really deliver an innovative, modern and efficient brand experience, and they are stymied by corporate governance (the budget process is slow everywhere), risk averse cultures, and lack of skills. So, here’s to you, wherever you are, and I look forward to seeing you on a conference stage sprinkling fairy dust and reigniting that spark in all of us very soon.

#digitalonboard #retailinnovation #futureofretail #omnichannel #generativeAI #digitaltransformation