On Monday of this week we apparently witnessed the most miserable day of the year. Coined ‘Blue Monday’, it marked the theoretical date on which credit card bills from Christmas splurges began to roll in, the point that holiday cheer officially left for another year and as seems to be evermore seasonal – when the cold snap hit.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Blue Monday – whether tactics by retailers or trends, we seem keen to attach a label to our buying behaviours. What these gimmicks do, beyond providing a focal point in the retail calendar, is highlight patterns – albeit in their extreme. On Black Friday alone, almost 60% of the UK’s Internet traffic came from mobile devices, with an increase in online sales of 91% according to figures from IBM. In comparison, December marked a month-on-month decline in footfall on the UK high street (British Retail Consortium, Jan 2015).
Granted, Black Friday and the likes represent acknowledgement from retailers that value and experience is key, but won’t necessarily to lead to long term loyalty from customers. Today’s shopper now expects a rich palette of retail experiences that provide ever-increasing value and convenience both in-store and out. This cultural shift, which has been largely driven and facilitated by technology and in particular the exponential growth in mobile device adoption, is forcing retailers to completely rethink the ways in which they engage with consumers.
Take the UK’s supermarket chains for example. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer have all announced drastic changes in the last couple of weeks, in response to poor share prices and dwindling sales. Moves to close stores and place restrictions on new developments, in a bid to win back the trust of shareholders and consumers alike, are a nod to the growing demands of consumers for a more convenient and contextual retail experience which promises better value, whether in-store or online.
Retailers thinking seriously about digitization are no longer doing so in isolation, or as an alternate route to market. If you take the example of shopping centres like those owned by Intu in the UK and their deployment of connected mobile experiences toaddress the multichannel demands of their shoppers, they are invested in their physical presence, but are starting to connect the online and offline worlds to create a more intelligent experience, blending the customer centricity of the online with the irreplaceable physical world.
Indeed, recent research from Cisco has uncovered consumer preferences for connected experiences enabled by the Internet of Everything. It revealed that most shoppers want innovations that improve convenience and efficiency and promise hyper-relevance.
But all of this is only scratching the surface; it’s estimated that more than 99% of all physical objects that may one day join our network are currently unconnected. The Internet of Everything will fundamentally change the retail industry; allowing more and more retailers to get insight on their customers and gain competitive advantage. Ultimately customers dictate the way they want to shop, but retailers are in a position to give them what they could only imagine.
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3 Comments
We need to understand the market but at the same time keep things simple; retailers need to be everything to everyone. Online shopping as and will continue to grow, however, as many customers make actual purchases online, many people still prefer personal contact,these people still would rather purchase from a physical retail store but utilise online tools for comparison of price and guidance in choice. The more successful retailers going forward will be the one’s that make a seamless integration of all technology as to offer to complete a great experience for shoppers to enjoy regardless of their personal shopping traits. Retail is basically still simple, ” Have the goods available, Priced competitively”, deliver on customers expectations, simple.
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Also we need a shift towards a more coherent experience. For example brands shouldn’t be selling goods for one price online and another in shops, as the consumer sees it as incongruent.