Why Being a Zebra in a Herd of Retail Zebra's Isn't an Inertia Moving Strategy.

We live in a world today where digital and eCommerce is mainly a convenience that has further energised the digital laggards by enforced global lockdowns.

As such if physical retail is to survive it urgently needs to reinvent what was, to become what is.

To get people out of the 'stay at home' anxiety' mindset means that today this should be a unique experience for the consumer, something that not only amplifies the brand, but moves it on from what has become a mainly 'transactional' experience for many, and yes it needs to cover its cost.

I recently saw what I thought was a great quote, and for me sums up the problem with mass market retailing in the 21st Century;

"Don't Be a Zebra in a Herd of Zebra's"

At time of writing this article (21st July 2020) another slew of big box retailers continue to announce rationalisation of the real estate, sadly this is also combined with the continuation of heavy job losses. One of those big box retailers is what used to be the bell weather of UK retailing, 'Marks & Spencer' (M&S) where they, and others seemed to have completely lost their retail mojo long before this crisis.

There is much confusion and debate around the ongoing validity of the department store format with the likes of John Lewis and Debenhams to name but a few of the bigger names also struggling to find form in this new digital era. If we combine this with the acceleration of what was an already weak format and balance sheet it seems that Covid simply shone the light on this sector that much brighter.

So, what can retail do when consumers are scarce, revenues are at a trickle, resources are being diminished by the day, and you operate a model at much higher fixed rate than all those online businesses that have been nibbling away at you for many years?

Here's a few thoughts: these ideas have been spurred on by a few savvy brands with a desire to encourage a closer relationship with the consumer rather than stick with the previous distribution model that served retail in the 20th Century, and today is something that doesn't seem to cut it in the new world of 21st Century retailing.

While Nike's results were lower than anticipated in Q4, executives remained staunchly focused on the future. (article here)

In connection with its consumer direct offense, the retailer is planning to open between 150 and 200 new smaller footprint stores in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in the image of the Nike Live concept it's been testing for a few years now.

The reality is finally hitting home for all retailers who have languished for many years in the belief that they will always have time to to adapt to this brave new digital world - how wrong they were!.

The biggest change in retailing has already occurred, it happened some 20+ years ago when many traditional retailers thought that having a website was a 'nice to have', today you don't have the luxury of another 5 years to turn the tanker around, the harsh facts are that the consumer will sink it for you if you haven't already adapted to where they are today. 

STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS?

If retail spent a lot more time focusing and obsessing on changes in consumer behaviour as opposed to making things incrementally better from an internal perspective we might actually start to see some green shoots of customer centric innovative thinking.

As the retail sector continues its unbundling of department store and big box formats there is a glimpse of hope, but it requires an agile and open mindset from leaders and employees alike.

The first step is to get back to the basics of delivering on the customer’s wants and needs, building trust, and demonstrating that our appreciation of the individual shopper goes beyond the sum and substance of his/her transactions. 

From where I sit I can see 3 huge opportunities for not just retail, but also many other sectors with a desire to not only remain 'front of mind' with consumers, but to also to get them involved in a way that's been proven to encourage them to leave that 'safe bubble' called 'stay at home'.

Why should you seriously consider this? - "Because if you don't look to move inertia in your favour then your simply waiting for basic economics to finish you off."

3 Inertia Moving Strategies;

1. Visual Magic
2. Sustainability and Re-use
3. Social & Streaming

• Visual Magic - If you're active on LinkedIn you can't help noticing the number of people looking for work. One of those talent sectors also hit by this crisis is that of the 'Visual Merchandising' teams. These are the extremely creative people who most of the time are utilized by retailers to 'dress the window', position the 'promotion's', and generally create visual magic from extremely tight budgets and available resource. When done right visual merchandising (VM) has the ability to literally create a silk purse out of a sows ear, which in turn can draw people in off the street and help turn a window display into a great revenue generator. There certain key times of the year when VM really does come into it's own and these are the main calendar events such as Valentines Day, Easter, Christmas, and lets not forget 'The Sales'.

But, what if we turned to them in this crisis and asked them to literally think outside the box (or store in this case) and come up with something we know is lacking which is good old 'retail theatre'. Something that focuses on a really cool customer centric experience - think Xmas market type of pop up locations, think about segmenting the department store experience into a small store format on a temporary basis - JUST GET CREATIVE!

• Asset Re-Use & Sustainability - Every single physical retailer no matter where you are in the world has to invest in shopfitting and design. These are classed as assets and sit on the balance sheet as a item of depreciation. When a retailer invest in Visual Merchandising assets it rarely (if at all) sits alongside the store design and shopfitting on the balance sheet other than for a new store opening. From my understanding most retailers haven't a clue what these ongoing assets are, and more worryingly where they are sat, and at what value - But what if retail looked at these assets as way of leveraging strategy #1 above?

For sometime retail has had the problem highlighted above, for sometime it's never really been a high priority - until now.

I recently came across a really interesting company who has created 360° Remote Project & Asset Management system called 'TRAM' . In summary it provides the ability for retailers to being able to 'track, trace, value. and re-use all those VM display assets and repurpose them. Thus enabling retail to get going on an agile strategy to deliver 'visual magic' based on a customer centric driven experience.

I also like there (TRAM) positioning statement which is 'Global asset catalog and usage scheduler supports design teams and agencies while protecting your bottom line — and our planet' so, do yourself a favour and check them out.

• Social & Streaming - Who better to tell a company’s story than its employees? Team members are far more capable than any external marketing agency. When team members generate content, they themselves become the face of the company, and consumers often find it easier to relate to a real person than a company entity. Your brand in the 'physical retail' world is experienced by not only your shop window, logo, or product but through your store teams. It's them that consumers turn to to ask questions, it's them they turn to when they experience good/bad with your brand. But as we all know the biggest challenge is how to help to reassure consumers to get back out and shop with you - and this creates a huge opportunity for all retailers today.

If your company, and your job as a leader is still around post crisis how about investing in upskilling your employees to use social media as way of really providing an authentic voice, rather than the corporate message.

Everywhere we look today we can access virtually any kind of content. If your on Facebook, Instagram, and now even on LinkedIn you will no doubt have seen the 'Go Live' function which allows anyone to suddenly become a live streaming media star to the masses.

Lets have a look at the unabated rise of the micro influencer, some of which are being utilised by retailers and brands to showcase the next big thing exposing said brand to the influencers network in anticipation that some of that 'social cred' will turn into commercial opportunities. TV shopping has been doing a variation of this for years, brands take a product, get a slot, test the sales response and if the numbers look good - bingo happy days all around.

But, what if a retailer created that customer experience in the form of a pop up store, Xmas market style stalls, using social media as the communication channel and its audience as part of the stream, thus leveraging the ability to stream to an already engaged audience - would that get people back to the stores?

If any of the above helped to stimulate thoughts and ideas and you would like to discuss how I might assist with your growth strategy - feel free to send me a DM.