The retail industry’s mood was recorded at the UK Retail Innovation Forum organised a few months ago by Island Pacific. 200 representatives from more than 50 retail brands of all sectors and sizes attended. They included some of Britain’s largest high street retailers, independents and ambitious innovators looking to make an omni channel impact.
A live survey was conducted throughout the day to determine how attendees interacted with business information within and beyond their own organisations. 28% of attendees stated that they have no single view of their organisation’s operations while 88% indicated that they need to improve store planning.
The survey also showed that a third (31%) of those attending had a PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system. The benefits of such a system were perceived to be communication and collaboration (27%) with the same percentage citing cost management as the most significant gain. They saw the biggest challenges as, customer focus and increasing customer demands, (48%) followed by managing change (24%). Stock control was the biggest challenge faced by 16% of attendees.
35% of the group cited disparate systems as the reason why they did not have a clear vision of their business. Meanwhile 80% saw the cloud as the means of getting their systems organised onto one platform.
When the science behind retailing is revealed this way the result is better business, higher sell through rates and fewer returns. In her presentation at the Forum, consumer goods and retail expert, Susan Olivier, talked about generating brand identity enhancements, and how sharing 3D data leads to greater efficiencies across visual assortment, planning and sourcing.
Brand differentiation is a major issue for omni channel retailers. They need to present the same values across all platforms. But in-store, mobile and online experiences can, and often are, radically different from each other. The cost of a poor online shopping experience could potentially wipe out decades of bricks and mortar based brand building in a single click.
Retailers need a clear picture of their whole business with no places for hidden or lost data. And customers want to know that what they are going to buy will not disappoint them and have to be returned. When consumers and retailers get the information they need guesswork and risk are erased producing mutual benefits for retailers and customers alike.
Customer ’empowerment and promiscuity’ was coined by retail expert and TV commentator Nathalie Berg to describe the way shoppers treat brands on the internet. The pressure is on for retailers to leverage consumer empowerment to generate loyalty. This can only be done through shopping-experience innovations that keep customers coming back for more, coupled with business analytics that drive commercial success.
Customers’ direct involvement with retailers is a great driver of brand loyalty and the internet is the perfect medium. Crowd sourcing future fashions with consumers’ input, enabling the design of unique products with online configurators and special events for those that get involved are just the start of what’s on offer to innovative retailers.
Considering 40% of Retail Innovation Forum attendees felt their customers had no loyalty to the brands they represent makes an integrated single source data platform a must have purchase.
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