So, what is the differentiating factor if the external environment is the same for both
Speaking at The Economic Times Spectrum, Piyush Chowhan, Group CIO, Lulu Group presented these factors as the top transformational trends and areas in the retail industry.
“Recently the market has seen a lot of bankruptcies and we have seen retailers after retailers and store after stores getting shut. The next big thing was the closing of Debenhams. The only question that comes to mind, after reading these news stories is ‘Is this the doom’s day for the physical retail stores?’ And the answer is absolutely not,” Chowhan said
“The reason is that some of these retailers are not able to catch the trends and adapt to the change,” he added.
Let’s see what these trends are:
1. Digital Divide is becoming larger:
“When I say digital, I do not mean E-commerce. The divide between the retailers which are digital and the ones which are not is getting bigger. The larger is becoming larger and the weaker is becoming weaker. Hence, while the retailers filed bankruptcies, a lot of retailers like Walmart, Tesco showed record results,” Chowhan said.
If organisations are not willing to adopt the digital approach, they will suffer. Chowhan suggested that if you want to survive in this era, you have to adopt the digital mantra. Meaning digital transformation has to be your key strategy.
2. Customer Experience will be the differentiator:
Leaders should not think of their business as an operational machine but as a customer service or a customer experience platform. Unless they move their focus towards making their company as a customer experience platform, they will not understand your customer fully.
“Retailers need to build data platforms so they can get a lot of customer data, process it and offer personalised products and services to the customers. Gone are days where having the best supply chains and best product assortment channels made you the leader. Today you need to revolve your entire business around customer experience and transform each and every part of your organisation to work towards customer experience,” Chowhan said.
3. Omnichannel will drive the growth:
“Create that omnichannel view of the customer. The customer does not want a siloed offering. Most of the retailers are still interacting on the online channel and the offline one but there is a very limited barring of data across these channels to provide a holistic offering to the customer. This is the friction between online and offline which is not letting the retailers create an experience for the customers which is unique for them,” he said.
Chowhan suggests creating an omnichannel strategy and an omnichannel experience so that you are able to share the data seamlessly and create an offering which is frictionless.
“Build your store as an experience and adopt an omnichannel commerce paradigm. Unless you marry your physical stores with online ones and create an omnichannel experience, you can not survive in the current situation,” he concluded.
