i3 - November/December 2016 - 63

By Steve Smith

Business

R E TA I L ST R AT EG I E S

Is Retail Dead? No, It Continues to Evolve
his point such as: Amazon gets 60 cents
of every incremental dollar of double-digit
U.S. online sales growth. He also said 40
percent of brands sell direct to consumers.
He finally asked, "Is Marc Andreessen
right?" "We don't just shop to acquire
products. Shopping is a social experience.
Your brain on shopping is the same as your
brain on cocaine, because of dopamine.
Shopping goes into caveman behavior."
He said physical stores are not going to
go away since it is "a social experience.
You can't have a brand
unless you make a
Retailer Challenges
physical connection
with a shopper."
l 40 percent of brands now sell
"Everything about
direct to consumers;
ovember begins prime time for retailers who
the physical shopping
l 52 percent of consumers visit
brandwebsiteswithintenttobuy;
sell consumer technology, where months of
store has to change," he
l Nearly half of in-store shopadded. You just can't
planning come down to the basics of having
pers (48 percent) believe they
rely on Sunday fliers
enough hot products they can promote and
know more about a product
and TV ads hawking
than the store associate;
sell to make a profit. But how that notion squares with
the lowest price to genl 67 percent sometimes doubt
the concept of "Black Friday" or "Black November" -
associates are telling the truth.
erate sales and profits.
SOURCE: DOUG STEPHENS AT
BrandSource's
RETAILPROPHET.COM
management, and its
consumer electronics,
an event which uses print and TV ads
members, know that.
home automation and
to increase retail foot traffic by proThe previous day John White, the group's
appliances, which should provide profits
viding an orgy of discounts the day after
chief marketing officer, revealed its new
for the foreseeable future.
Thanksgiving to consumers so that, just
website platform for members and avbTV,
maybe, sales associates can sell some
a new video content service. He said
products profitably - is a mystery to me.
Shake It Up
retail websites "must look great, not just
When you consider that traditional
The selection of Stephens as a keynote
good," and video, along with blogs, thirdretailers with brick-and-mortar locaspeaker seemed to be an obvious case of
party content, mobile-friendly sites and
tions are trying to compete with an
telling independent retailers not to sit on
expanded social media outreach are critical
ever-expanding Amazon and thousands
their laurels in a business where all the
to "engage and retain current customers
of online retailers including their own
rules have changed.
and gain additional customers."
suppliers, it did not surprise me to hear
In Andreessen's view, according to
Industry buying groups, such as
a keynote speaker at a buying group conStephens, "online retailers will be the way
vention utter the words, "Retail is dead."
we buy" in the future and that today's retail Nationwide Marketing Group, with retail
The keynoter was Doug Stephens,
store model is "untenable" and "will go away members, know this type of engagement
will attract millennials, who love shopping
a retail futurist who quoted Netscape
because software is eating retail," namely
online, but also love to shop locally.
co-founder and internet outlet investor/
the oodles of available SKUs, product
And Stephens pointed out that retailers
advisor Marc Andreessen in a presenreviews and the ways online sites know
cannot forget to make their physical store,
tation at the BrandSource buying group
their customers' preferences. Andreessen's
products and sales presentations inforconvention.
view is probably correct when it comes
mative and entertaining.
n
Maybe this was a shock for some members to the emergence now of old-fashioned
of BrandSource and its independent specialty brick-and-mortar retail chains trying to go
division, ProSource, who had just heard from nationwide and become public companies.
Steve Smith is editor at large of TWICE
its group executives about strong growth in
Stephens then trotted out stats to make
and its longtime editor in chief.

C TA . t e c h / i 3

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

http://www.RETAILPROPHET.COM http://CTA.tech/i3

i3 - November/December 2016

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