You're a retail expert. Weigh in.
Retail has changed dramatically in the past few years.?Now is the time to address opportunities to improve the industry.?
I invite you and other retail intellectuals to join me in a project to identify the best opportunities in retail to eliminate friction and improve performance. I’m inviting the smartest people I know to weigh in periodically on topics of interest to every segment. What are the nagging issues that keep retailers from better serving customers? What cuts into profits? What problems introduce friction into the customer experience? Consider these opportunities:?
·???????Creating stellar customer experiences?
·???????Leveraging actionable data from edge solutions?
·???????New ways of beating Organized Retail Crime?
·???????Inventory visibility, out of stocks, and perceived out of stocks?
·???????Returns and sustainability?
·???????Rewiring the supply chain for reliability?
·???????Size and fit inconsistency?
·???????Enabling endless aisles?
·???????Spotty (at best) product search?
I’m putting together a BrainTrust to ask your opinion periodically, and potentially invite you to a luxe Brainstorm dinner at the NRF show. You may participate openly or anonymously. The ideal outcome is a better understanding of retail’s issues, and a sense of how those issues can be addressed.
Your insights can help us leverage providers to help put together some solutions. Together, we have an opportunity to make lasting improvements to the industry.?
Please take a moment and let me know your Big Idea at [email protected].
Industry Strategist | Top Retail Expert 2024 & 2025?| Emerging Technologies & Innovation | Global Digital Transformation Leader | Adjunct Professor | Digital Investigator
3 年Associate engagement is lacking - treat associates as you would customers - everyone claims they are the retailer's most valuable asset! I'm seeing this at close quarters now through my son (15 and not driving yet) who has started his first PT job with a large grocery chain. There is no digital engagement for a demographic that is heavily skewed towards tech... He has to go to the store (or call-in) to get his hours for the next week... time off? Fill out paper.. availability... Paper... payroll issue, update direct deposit, etc. Also paper! If retailers want to be an employer of choice in this tight labor market, they need to improve their associate experience to a level that is simlar to their customer experience.
Expert in omnichannel retail and distribution across the sports, fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment sectors in the UK and GCC, with a proven track record of driving innovation, revenue, profit and strategic growth.
3 年Bad buying remains a common achilles heel for many retailers and yet is inexcusably still a function often not given proper scrutiny within a business - wrong product, wrong place, wrong quantity, wrong time, wrong price, etc. and you will inevitably dilute the effectivenesss of all the valuable time, effort and money invested in to all other features and functions of your retail business.
RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert. RetailWire BrainTrust Panelist. Founding Partner - Merchandising Metrics. Consulting on Strategic Merchandising. How to embrace RISK as a brands' best friend. It's a differentiator.
3 年Over buying of seasonal apparel. Poor to painfully bad seasonal conversion. As evidenced by a tour of the mall at EOM January. EOM January, not December 26th. EOM January, when the bulk of post Christmas selling has run it's course. To recap many years of scratching my head on this subject, I made mall tours at the end of January 2019, 2020, 2021 and will do same 2022. The amount of inventory left over at the end of the selling season is staggering in some retailers. I'm talking rooms full of inventory marked at 50% to 70% off, with all kinds of additional promos added in. The liquidation of that end of season inventory has got to be one of the biggest profit drains that retailers experience. So why do so many retailers repeat the same over buying mistakes year after year? Why isn't there a learning curve and sequential improvement?
Top Retail Voice by NRF | Director Partner Marketing for Retail & CPG at Microsoft | Podcast Host & Producer | RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert | RetailWire BrainTrust
3 年Cathy, this sounds wonderful! I would add two things that are quite intertwined- in-store execution and enabling frontline staff for success. There is a tech component to these two but equally important is process, culture, and recognition!
The Key thing missing from failed retailers is a tight link between their strategy and its execution. Most of these retailers had great strategy but didn't focus their execution on it. Of course a great strategy starts with a focus on the customer. After all you can have the best products, prices, ... but without customers it is all waisted.