What does the future hold for the retail industry?
How can retailers compete more effectively in 2016 and beyond?
Last month more than 40 retailers joined DynamicAction and a panel of industry insiders for a thought-provoking discussion at Eleven Madison Park. From Amazon’s domination to the rise of the Merchant Scientist, the diverse panel of retail experts shared their unique perspectives on retail’s future. Lending their insights on the industry’s direction, they discussed where retailers should focus and strategies for translating trends into action.
For those who could not attend, here are a few of their invaluable predictions:
The importance of data scientists: “Retailers have to connect decisions from across their business using a rich set of data, without hiring a large number of data scientists, because most cannot afford that price tag,” said John Squire, Co-Founder and CEO, DynamicAction. For merchandisers, who are on the front line, it’s important to extract from data how they can profit above their competitors. They have to deploy better methods to understand their business data and thusly pull it together to make decisions better and faster.
Why Amazon wins: The ecommerce giant knows its customers well, and through offering a personalized experience – they are able to recall habitual purchases, while also delivering intelligent recommendations. “A retailer that simplifies things for you, is a retailer that will win,” explained Susan Reda, Editor, STORES Media.
Additionally considered was a weak-link of ecommerce’s Goliath. “Amazon wins on price, customer service and convenience. However, they do not win on selection; they have what you need, not necessarily what you want,” Ken Seiff, Managing Partner, Beanstalk Ventures concluded. The Amazon model is dynamic as they can be both a partner and a competitor. Retailers need to be aware of how best to leverage the relationship to meet their business goals, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for its competitiveness.
The rise of the Merchant Scientists: Merchandising’s evolution into a data-oriented mindset is very similar to what was previously experienced in Marketing sphere, which has now applied data-driven thinking to areas such as paid search and ROI. There is an emergence breaking through in Merchandising. However, in the words of Ken Seiff, “Many (merchants) are CEOs operating on gut instinct and experience, and until the next generation moves in more fully, it’s going to be very hard to change that.” That sounds like a great opportunity for substantial competitive advantage through empowering disruptive tools for decision making.
Capitalize On Data: Merchandisers have gone from having minimal available data to having an overwhelming amount of data at their disposal. “Today we have so much data from all areas of the business, and you need a way to manage it,” says Reda. Nowadays, many companies understand the role of digital in retail and how to harmonize these once-disparate channels to have one clear view of all data they combine and collect.
Susan Reda went on to say, “We now know that you need to look at all the data that supported that final conclusion. Retailers must combine data and intuition in a way that maximizes the strengths of each.”
A very relevant point indeed. One can never neglect experience, but it can no longer be the only source of agile decision making.
DynamicAction is grateful to our esteemed panelists and all the retailers who joined us for a remarkable evening. We look forward to seeing you at our next Retail Leaders event. Click here to let us know if would like to be informed in the future.
Photo Credit: Sara Beth Turner www.sarabethturner.com
