The retail world has never operated in a vacuum. How could it? You always have competitors, whether you’re a high street giant or a corner shop in a provincial town. The bottom line is that your customers could always go somewhere else, so you have to do your best to hold on to them and make yourself more attractive than your competitors. That sense of interconnection, of an ecosphere of retail, is more true now than it has ever been, as technology and customer taste erode borders and break down barriers of expectation.
No-one should ever be too proud to learn from the opposition. No-one gets everything right all the time, so there’s always something you can do to improve the product or the brand. It may be something obvious and straightforward, or it may be an idea from so left-field that you would never have reached the conclusion by yourself – yet when someone else is doing it, it seems obvious. And of course, the knowledge transfer flows in both directions; from major conglomerates down to small business, but also back up again. Flexibility, adaptability and, in a strange way, humility, are all key to success. You must learn to be reactive, but also never to be afraid of being a disruptor.
The World Retail Congress was launched in 2007 to bring together the leaders of the global retail industry so that they could focus on understanding and serving today’s consumers, and ensuring that their businesses change and innovate at the break neck speed necessary to survive and thrive in the modern retail environment. It involves those from inside retail and out, including academia, politics, economics and NGOs. This year, the conference is taking part in Amsterdam in May, and I’m looking forward to attending and speaking, and to hearing the views of colleagues and friends on the current retail sector.
I’ve been talking a lot recently about how we in the UK can revive the “bricks-and-mortar” retailers of the traditional high street. I don’t buy into the conventional wisdom that the high street is dead, doomed to death by a thousand cuts from out-of-town outlets and online competitors. But there’s no inevitability to this, in my mind. There are things that high street retailers can do on their own, and strategies they can adopt in concert with local and central government, in order to restore a competitive atmosphere to the high street.
I’ve written recently about brand loyalty and how innovation and proactivity can build a profitable image and identity. But really, it’s a subset of my wider theme, which, for want of a better description, is change and flexibility. The high street sector has to think creatively and innovatively if it is to match its competitors. Recently I write about how B&M retailers have to think of their internet presence as equal in importance to their physical footprint, and to regard their online systems as being as carefully designed as an actual shop floor. It’s all about understanding what works for different people, and tailoring your business to customer needs. The days of telling consumers what’s best for them are long over.
The 2019 WRC promises to be another fascinating event. We’ll hear from a wide variety of speakers: Judith McKenna, the president and CEO of Walmart International, and Tim Steiner, the CEO of Ocado; Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and Sinead Burke, newly appointed to the Irish Republic’s Council of State; Martin Wolf, chief economics correspondent for the Financial Times, and Glynn Davis, editor of Retail Insider. (Discount code for retailers: MARNEW1019) I’m looking forward to learning a lot. Bringing together so many different perspectives and skill sets is a great opportunity for us all to improve the work we do. Next stop, Amsterdam!
