Retailers, do you feel overwhelmed by recent trends of using
big data in the industry? Or, you get a sale but you are not sure where sale
came from? Depending on whom you ask, you may have different answers. But no
need to panic, it may be your chance to excel in the industry. Growth of big
data usage has led the renaissance of retail IT happening, empowering retailers
to utilize data and establish engaging customer relationship. As a graduate
student in the Northwestern Medill IMC marketing program, I aim for helping
retailers to be disruptors by embracing the technology in changing landscape.
Retail Renaissance written by
Lewis Gersh: talks about there are many retailers still fear and
unwillingly spend on technology. However, they are many players in traditional
retail are taking a step forward to embrace e-commerce and further to integrate
big data with monetization plan. And the article also presents the report of US
Census that justify the fear for e-commerce’s threat to physical retail. “In
the retail industry, the transformative potential of technology will not
displace physical retail, but rather, will transform and augment the
traditional experience and displace legacy systems.”
Online Retail Sales Are Down, And Why Some Retailers Don’t
Care written by Steve Olenski justifies
the questions most people who might have ”How can online retail sales be “small”?
The story of Amazon shows that it was leading the way in terms of online sales that
was higher than their next 12 competitors combined. The articles points out the
problem of retailers always have ”How to attribute its sale to online vs.
offline?” But does it really matter?
From my analysis of these two articles and my studies at
Northwestern University, here are three points I recommend you to think and
take action.
1. Embrace technology: These two articles
imply that technology will be seamlessly important to personal shopping
experience while consumers expect to have tailored experiences and brand
engagement in their own way. Therefore, improvement of functionality and
accessibility to product specifications and deals will be critical to boost the
sales, further to carve bigger share of market while other retailer don’t
understand how to utilize it.
2. Engage: The power of e-commerce not
only offers the platform where shoppers can buy, but how shoppers make the decision
through purchase funnel. Retailers should integrate technology with its offline
service that will enhance the tailored shopping experience. Make your customers
feel important and special. Eventually, e-commerce will enhance the quality of
customer retention.
3. Integration: Perhaps you do not have
organized system to track online sales and might have misplaced online sales to
offline sales. However, online and offline activities should be seemed as a
whole, what shoppers research online can affect their offline activities, vice
versa. The key is to integrate all these resources throughout multi-channel
platforms, further to generate tailored shopping experience and personal brand
engagement.
Jenny Chang is a
master’s student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern
University, and she will soon graduate in December 2013. With 3+ years’
multinational working experiences in Apparel & Textile industry, her specialties
are planning, sourcing, and buying. She anticipates that she can utilize her
ability in Apparel and CPG industry. Please reach her by following her
@Jennyfer0304.
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