Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!
Are your retail customers finding you less attractive lately? Consider your position on the seven signs shared below and you may decide your retail business needs an omni-channel makeover!
This is not just an idle suggestion we’re making as the omni-channel retail buzz is quickly becoming a roar and with good reason.
Not since the advent of price tags, cash registers and the ubiquitous apparel hanger has there been a retail industry innovation poised to create such major change.
Since the 1990’s I’ve been writing about sustainability, cap & trade and carbon footprints mainly in the realm of logistics and supply chain as that’s where I live.
Supply chains are incredibly important in this context as roughly 75% of most company’s carbon footprint emanates from their supply chain.
My mantra throughout this time has been ‘when not if’ these measures will be enacted and today I have to say we’re rapidly approaching the tipping point for supply chain sustainability.
The age of Matrix Retail is already upon us and the only question to ask is will you acknowledge, understand, embrace, engage and tune all of the components of your company’s presence in the retail eco-system?
Or, will you choose to simply ignore them, continue in discrete multi-channel / abomni-channel mode and watch your competitors employ Matrix Retail methods to delight your customers, then dominate, devastate and ultimately destroy your business?
On a more positive note, we hope you opt for the former as the concept of Matrix Retail aims to help you bring about a state of zen awesomeness and retail customer joy as your business prepares to accelerate and break the e-commerce sound barrier.
Depicting something as pervasive and all encompassing as today’s real world digitally enabled retail environment is a tall order (especially for a graphically challenged logistics dude) but the above is my best representation to date of the eight layers of Matrix Retail which need to be enabled, interconnected and then tuned to fully deliver what I call ‘the logistics of customer experience‘.
Trillions of dollars are spent each year on all aspects of brand and product promotion, the vast majority of which generates little in positive social benefit.
Many would argue why should it, as the purpose of these expenditures is only to sell as many products to as many people as possible. However the emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility in all major business organizations is leading to a rethink and refocus of all expenditures and actions of the organization to maximize the firm’s positive social impact.
By now, most logistics and supply chain professionals have heard the word “nanotechnology” bandied about in a number of different contexts. The question then arises, how many of us really know what “nanotechnology” means and more importantly what impacts it may ultimately have on our companies and our profession?
As straight forward thinkers, people in supply chain logistics prefer simple, easy to understand answers and at the detail level, nanotechnology is anything but. So let’s cut through all the investment hype and scientific bafflegab to first develop a basic understanding and then review a number of potential impacts the growth and expansion of nanotech may have.
In layman’s terms, nanotechnology is… ” the precision placement, measurement, manipulation and modeling of sub-100 nanometer scale matter. ” In other words nanotech is about building really small things. So just how small are we talking here? Suffice it to say that a human hair is approximately 50,000 nanometers wide, and nano manufacturing is carried out on a scale 500 times smaller than that. Just sit back and think about that basic fact for a minute as we now begin to review the short, medium and long term impacts this emerging technology may generate.
At a previous NRF Shop.org Summit I saw a keynote address by Jamie Nordstrom on trends he saw coming in the online retail business. During his talk Jamie said there was a new dynamic emerging, people were describing using words like multi-channel and omni-channel. However in his view these words were not fully capturing the changes he saw coming in retail and a new word was needed, ‘maybe polychannel or something like that’.
After the presentation I had a quick meet and greet with Jamie in which I told him how much his presentation had resonated with me based on my past senior department store retail experience at Hudson’s Bay Company. I then said to him that I think I know the word he was looking for to describe the new dynamic and that was Matrix Commerce. His reaction was immediate and visceral ‘Yes, that’s it! Have you trademarked it?’
BOOM!
What was that noise?
Someone just broke the e-commerce sound barrier!
In the third quarter of 2014 Williams-Sonoma’s e-commerce sales represented 51.5% ($587 million) of total company sales overtaking their store sales ($566 million) for the first time!
Even more importantly this increase is not due to offsetting reductions in store sales with the $566 million in store sales representing an increase of 4.8% year over year for the quarter.
Recently IBM Connect 2014 in Orlando was a great opportunity to catch up with a number of thought leaders and frontline practitioners working every day to bring Social Business to life.
Numerous reports have been emerging showing that anywhere from 50 to 70% of both B2B and B2C sales in coming years will be driven via the web through online and social marketing channels making the movement to a social business approach a must for leading firms.
December is now upon us and before we know it we’ll be starting off 2014 right, which means it won’t be long until we’re all gathering in San Diego Feb 23rd to 26th for RILA Supply Chain 2014.
Last year in Florida at RILA Logistics 2013, the topic of multi-channel was discussed with 5 related presentations delivered where the challenges of the coming omni-channel revolution were laid down.
RILA Supply Chain 2014 will highlight this ongoing evolution from a discrete multi-channel stream to a full track entitled Omni-channel which includes the 4 interesting presentations identified below:
Social adoption rates are rocketing and the impact of social networking within society continues to grow. But surprisingly enough, there are many in the business to business marketing sphere who still don’t “get” it. With this in mind I recently put together a fast moving and to the point keynote presentation to open the eyes of B2B salesforces and socially energize them!
“Becoming a B2B Social Sales Machine” in simple, sales oriented terms explains what the B2B social networking sales opportunity means. Sharing how both individuals and ultimately the combined organization can leverage content, connections, context, collaboration and community to drive real results!