Article
The Retail Transformation
Cultivating Choice, experience, and trust
New technologies and new ways to connect with consumers are transforming the retail sector. To compete effectively, traditional retailers should reimagine how they create and capture value, thinking past omnichannel positioning to find the best uses for their assets.
Today’s retail landscape is changing rapidly and dramatically. Driven by the Big Shift’s forces, consumers are becoming far more informed, and product choices are proliferating rapidly. Technological advances and public policy liberalization are contributing to new flows of information, knowledge, and resources. As a result, retailers face new pressures:
-Lowered barriers to market entry are bringing in many new small players and fragmenting the retail landscape.
-Online marketplaces are transcending geographic proximity and expanding market demand for highly specific offerings. Small niche players can reach consumers regardless of physical location.
-Technologies such as on-demand fulfillment are changing how and where retailers hold inventory.
-New retail models are arising out of new technologies and new ways to connect with consumers.
Change is seldom easy, especially when the future is uncertain. Big changes, especially, require commitment and can attract organizational antibodies. To effectively scale new business models, established retailers should pursue “small moves, smartly made”—testing, scaling, and incorporating the most successful ideas as foundations for their evolving businesses.
The Retail Transformation