Rather like the beautiful Alpine slopes, the retail landscape is white, pristine and featureless. There’s too much choice, too little differentiation which all makes it too hard for consumers to choose. Everyone is broadly doing most things quite well… With that in mind, these are my key four points to reflect on for the year ahead:
1. The thing isn’t the thing
It’s very rare to be the only brand selling a certain ‘thing’. With multitude options, the ‘thing’ is not the ‘thing’ that consumers care about. They want a meaningful relationship with you. We are in the ‘age of everything’. So what’s your story? If you’re not differentiating with your service and communications, how are you standing out?
2. The link between sustainability and commerce
Historically consumers were willing to pay a bit extra for your green credentials. Times have changed. Unsustainable practices are now very much viewed as the retailers fault. Consumers are looking to see your environmental commitments, and expecting you to fund it.
3. Ecommerce teams need to keep up
If we reflect on the last ten years of digital marketing, we’ll all agree that the last couple have seen an explosion of new tech and channels. Welcome to AI (in its many iterations) and the metaverse to name just a couple. The pace of learning is insane – but e-commerce teams must keep up. This is no time to lag behind.
4. Authenticity and brand character
Your ‘character’ is what your best friends say about you behind your back. What does your brand character say about you? Consumers don’t care? I disagree. Patagonia close their stores to allow staff to vote. One initiative amongst many. Their authenticity resonates, and consumers respond.
*Reproduced with the permission of imagino.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ian Jindal , Founder and Editor in chief of InternetRetaling
Ian Jindal is a consultant, publisher and advisor in eCommerce and multichannel retail. Ian cofounded and is Editor in Chief of InternetRetailing, providing insight and research for Europe’s etailers and multichannel retailers – www.internetretailing.net.
To underpin the analysis Ian co-founded RetailX, researching performance in multichannel retail, brands and vendors. In 2015 we launched the UK Top500 ranking of retailers (IRUK) and in 2016 the first performance-based ranking of European’s retailers (IREU) – www.internetretailing.net/iruk and www.internetretailing.net/ireu
Ian’s retail clients include Selfridges, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Asda, Couturelab, Waitrose, De Bijenkorf, Kering, Disney, IKEA, Walgreens Boots Alliance and VF Corporation (Timberland, The North Face, Vans etc). Previously Ian was Group eCommerce Director at Littlewoods Shop Direct, and Head of Online Operations at the BBC. Ian founded the European eCommerce Forum, is an Advisor to eCommerce Europe and authored the UK’s first MSc in Internet Retailing.”
Ian’s skills encompass technology (Chartered IT Professional, Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society), marketing, commerce and finance (Chartered Accountant) and business-wide innovation.