2017Issue6_Alabama_v9.indd

VIEWPOINT

“The ones that survive, I believe, will be the stores that understand they are not so much selling products or brands…but actually ought to be in the business of creating information- based solutions to the problems people face in their lives.”

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Information-based, because the ability to provide background info about food products as well as use-centric data (recipes, menus, nutrition, etc…) will turn them into a resource for the shopper, not just a source of products. Everything, I believe, is pointing in this direction. This is the season for both breaking down old processes, procedures and silos, and building up a new relevance and resonance to the shopper. Now. Fast. Because the retail world continues to turn, turn, turn. Falling behind is an untenable option. ■

You compete by creating a retail experience – physical and virtual – that is relevant to the shopper and resonates with the shopper. (Pretty simple, huh? I concede, by the way, that it is a lot easier for me to say these things than for you to do them. Call it the advantages of being a pundit.) There are studies out there that show people – even millennials – like stores… though they don’t necessarily like shopping the way their parents did. And at the same time, we know the nation is over-stored, so it seems entirely likely that there are going to be some closures and failures out there. Maybe even some big ones. The ones that will survive, I think, will be the ones that recognize they need to occupy almost any space but the middle of the road, and that, in fact, they should not be thinking in terms of occupying space as much as creating their own differentiated and distinct ecosystems…being where and when the customer needs you to be, being less transaction-based and more focused on lifetime customer value. The ones that survive, I believe, will be the stores that understand they are not so much selling products or brands (good timing, since young people are far less brand loyal than their elders), but actually ought to be in the business of creating information-based solutions to the problems people face in their lives.

If they think that they’ll be successful simply by doing things the way they’ve always done them, then I think they have a problem. One of the more common conversations that I have when out talking to retailers usually starts out with being asked the following question: “Do you really think e-commerce is going to kill all the bricks-and-mortar stores?” Of course not. I actually think the question is the wrong one, and reflects many retailers’ desire to think in absolutes. Here are the questions that ought to be asked: “Do you think that e-commerce in general and/or Amazon in particular could steal as much as 10 percent of my business?” “Can I afford to give up 10 percent of my business?” “And, how do I compete with a juggernaut like this?” My answers are pretty simple. Yes. (But maybe 5 percent. Maybe 15. We’ll see.) It depends, perhaps, on what 10 percent you’re talking about. (Betcha that there are a bunch of unprofitable, non-differentiating sales that could be lost, but could be compensated for by more profitable sales that actually burnish and reinforce a retailer’s broader value/values proposition.)

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ALABAMA GROCER |