Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook - the new big four in retail...

We shop on phones, compare on Google and ask our Twitter-mates what they think. Even more importantly, we also have the ability to complain to 100 friends when a supplier/retailer misses our expectation…
This revolution in shopping behaviour is causing traditional retailers and suppliers to play catchup with multichannel marketing, or else…

Whilst historical purchase data reveals what we bought, social media reveals why and indicates the future. Think about it, we have been waiting 30 years for this insight…now we have it, are we doing enough?

The real opportunity
In fact, do we accept that the real  breakthrough hinges on the willingness and ability of the retailer to respond accordingly. For suppliers, the key issue is whether it is easier for traditional retailers to remodel the business based upon shopper-need, or for the new big four to fulfil the shopping transaction, profitably.

When I break from writing this KamBlog post to accept delivery of the Amazon book I ordered yesterday, at a 15% discount, while hesitating to drive to the nearest Tesco for a bottle of breakfast milk, somehow the answer suggests itself…

Just the first layer?
The multichannel e-commerce combination is obviously making it easier to buy, but I believe that as suppliers we are simply skimming off the first layer…

The real pay-off will result from re-engineering the entire brand offering to better meet consumer-shopper need, arriving at a minimal compromise between what a consumer is trying to tell us they require and our ability to provide the solution, better than the available competition.. In other words, building trust by delivering more than it says on the tin…always.

What this means for NAMs
This process includes adjusting our channel strategies to optimise their strengths, via NAMs that have the imagination to see that the accounts with real career-potential are the new retailers in emerging e-channels.
Sure, making real change in uncertain times is an uphill struggle, especially having to negotiate more with your own colleagues than with the customer.

However, given that we learn more from risk, mistakes, uncertainty and overcoming resistance (a buying signal?), numbers-based NAMs that are prepared to swim against the tide somehow move faster...