Customer Obsessed Retail
5 things I learned on Retail Detail Day 2018
A while ago, I had the opportunity to be present at Retail Detail Day 2018 organised by Retail Detail. Retail Detail is a company that invests, creates and shares everything about retail. Additionally, they organise 8 events per year. One of these events is Retail Detail Day, with this year's subject "Customer Obsessed Retail".
Obsessed retail — some background information
In Belgium, retail can be divided into 3 layers. The lower segment with lower-priced products is doing great. The middle segment is experiencing lots of problems due to a wide range of problems that we will not explain in too much detail here. Finally, the high segment with unique and premium products is doing great as well.
Each of these segments has their own ups and downs, opportunities and threats, and from each of these segments we can learn how retail can be booming business despite the heavy disruptions in the sector.
1. Be different
A lot of retailers have a webshop these days, simply because it’s the service you MUST have nowadays. However, one well-known and hugely successful retailer from the lower segment shows that a webshop may not be that important after all.
Action focuses on 1 brand, 1 store format and 1 store operating model. They have managed to create a very strong brand, they have become hugely successful in many countries, and they have managed to get there without investing in a webshop.
2. Focus
Retail Detail Day also showed that focus in retail is very important, both for your brand and for your customers. More and more, specialised and niched-down business models are proving more and more valuable.
Runners’lab, a company that strictly focuses on selling running shoes for runners by runners, offers a professional analysis using specialised machines for all of their customers. At the end of your visit, you walk out with running shoes completely tailored to your feet so you have less chance to get injuries.
They are very well-known in the running world thanks to this tailored experience and there are a lot more players who are discovering the power of more niched products.
3. Stick to your DNA
Every company in every sector will experience some rough waters. Some companies try to reinvent themselves by going in a totally different direction, creating a new identity and product portfolio. However, changing your entire business can turn on you very quickly because you lose whatever market share and reputation you could already build on.
Hema is one of those retailers who shows that sticking to your identity and building on the reputation you have pays off in the long run.
4. Data is important
Big data is a very hot topic right now, especially among retailers. Having the right data is like having pure gold. Using data, you can adapt to your market and get to know which of your product range is selling better to which of your client segments.
Spott, a company using AI tools to reinvent marketing, makes it possible to buy products you can see in tv shows, movies, and advertisements. This brings yet another dimension to online shopping by allowing customers to buy the clothes from their favorite characters directly from retailers without having to do dozens of Google searches to find out exactly which clothes those characters were wearing.
5. Disruption
It's a must to keep changing! Being a big retailer now doesn’t mean you will be a big retailer 5 years from now. Disruptive players like Amazon, Bol.com, and Zalando have more than proven that point. One of the keys to protect yourself from larger or more disruptive players is to team up with others by working with influencers, radio, creating events, … Be visible and work with key partners to expand your reach beyond your own small(er) circle.
Also, keep reinventing your company and invest in hot topics. One of the topics that came up a few times during Retail Detail Day was investing in durability and ecology which seems to be something most retailers are currently working on.
Conclusion
Bringing everything together, we have learned that we need to be consistent by sticking to our DNA — even when that makes us stand out from the rest — and adopting change that fits that DNA, we can benefit from a niched product range, and we can use big data to create more advanced marketing campaigns to target more detailed market segments.
While some of these tips seem contradictory, everything starts and ends with your business DNA. Like Simon Sinek said in his famous TED talk, it's all about why you do what you do. When you are consistent in why you do something, the core of your business remains the same while you can find new ways to adapt what and how you do business.
Days like these very much inspire and motivate me. I hope by sharing the key takeaways, it will do the same for you.
