Are there loyal customers? footfalls are falling, and e-commerce is the ruler. So, what is the future of retailing? Modern retailing is undergoing a root and branch restructuring in the most human-centric way ever. An increase in the per capita income, gross domestic product, consumer purchasing power, and ever-changing customer preferences have made it possible. The taste for branded goods also has a vital part to play in the modern retail world. The influx of more literate consumers has made retail not just an interface between brand and customer but an experience that is a discovery to the consumer.
Personalization: that is the sweet spot
A consumer wants to feel exclusive, a sense of being cared for, and is the process of offering each consumer a personalized trip across all touchpoints and channels, based on historical data and current shopper intent, supported by customer and product intelligence. Making customers feel special, distinctive, and emotionally linked is the ultimate purpose of customization in retail to enhance their purchasing experience. Even though almost every store today claims to “personalize” the shopping experience for each customer, few succeed.
Anything can be sold, but being at the right place at the right time is hitting the sweet spot.
Modern retail is agile and lean
It’s not necessary to be little or unambitious to be slim. It involves adhering to a process that sounds simple: Test, Learn, Iterate. Of course, putting these concepts into practice is challenging, and retailers’ struggles in doing so reveal a tendency for past over-reliance on outside consultants, generic technologies, and the old way of doing things.
Retailers may have put off making changes for too long. Many people have put off making judgments to the point where a single, sizable modification requirement may have multiplied into a hundred. Reimagining a whole store is difficult; judging and justifying all the recommendations and inputs and inculcating these mysteries into the retail is an Augean task.
