[ad_1]
Accepting that each retailer has its own operational model, each will also prioritise innovative investments in different ways. Here is what the panel is seeing.
More responsive operations and supply chain to improve availability both online and in-store. It is predicted that new warehouses three times the size of current mega sites are being planned, particularly in grocery where it has been shown that getting availability to 80% or over will lead to higher market share for the retailer that can achieve it.
People and property are a retailer’s two most important assets. But it is impossible to optimise their efficiency and productivity without sufficient operational visibility. They must balance their deployment with automation to maximise availability and empower service.
Rethink colleague roles because they lack the flexibility needed to run a store with multiple roles – service, pick for online orders, running back of store warehouses as mini fulfilment centres, or even switching from the store to the DC. Current contracts and training regimes may simply be too restrictive.
Store associates are a retailer’s most valuable asset. Equipping them with the right digital tools means that they can quickly address any customer pain points and cut friction from the in-store experience (i.e. help a shopper to find an item on the shelf, reorder an item that is out of stock, or check a customer out on the spot with a mobile POS device). And, with greater transparency around a customer’s shopping habits across both physical and digital channels, it also enables staff to offer a more deeply customised experience. This is only going to improve as retailers look to AI to power those more personalised recommendations. The tech has been available for some years now but adoption has tended to be piecemeal.
The ultimate user of so much technology as retailers drive forward for greater efficiency to improve productivity and cut costs can be the customer, so often an analogue creature in a digital world. And while they are quick to embrace tech that makes their life simpler and more convenient, they will baulk at having to manage more and more elements in their journey to purchase.
So, while the focus on product returns of late has been on the growing number of retailers that are starting to charge a fee, there has been less focus on making the process easier for the customer. And yet, there is no shortage of tech that can do this.
The customer also expects the right product, in the right place at the right time and while this should be a given in retail, there still a lot of work to be done by many retailers.
Despite the billions spent on trying to drive consumers online, it is widely accepted that online will never take more than a third of retail spend, probably less in some retail sectors.
The store therefore deserves more attention, but not in ways that simply automate to direct the customer to a self-checkout when they really want to interact with a member of staff, or adding lots of digital signage as a replacement for real people. And yet other consumers want more digital in-store if it enhances speed and convenience, through to information and inspiration.
Before the pandemic, the media was crowded with content about the future of the store, backed up with a host of innovation around design, layout, smart changing rooms, livestreaming, showrooming, staffless checkouts and just walk out capabilities. This is a call to get back to thinking big about what might come and how an innovative frame of mind might shape it.
Rising costs of trading online have clearly worked in favour of multi-channel retailers, as they can spread their risk, rather than pureplayers, even allowing for the economies of scale, security and control afforded by first party data.
Innovation for both types of retailer is focused on bridging the many gaps between the store and online, rather than simply optimising functions that are restricted to a single channel. For example, Augmented Reality (AR), especially in beauty, luxury, footwear and home, virtual shopping consultations connecting online shoppers with in-store staff, and Liveshopping are turning the discoverable into the transactional. People used to find products; today products find people.
Innovative thinking inevitably leads retailers to recognise that they cannot do everything themselves, an insight that has led to a revival, for example, in outsourcing. According to MarketWatch: “the global outsourcing market is expected to rise at a considerable rate between 2022 and 2026, spurred on by the uncertainties caused by the pandemic.”
Whilst the largest retailers have the experience, resources and money to make their own way on innovation, smaller ones do not, but even here there has been innovation, with large retailers offering to manage those smaller retailers’ logistics and store systems.
Some retailers are prepared to think the once unthinkable. Well-known High Street brands running in-store cafes, shop in shop dual branding. These are not all new ideas but we are seeing them being embraced more widely now.
[ad_2]
Source link