Canadian Retailer - Store 2013 - 104

RCC 5OTH ANNIVERSARY FUTURE OF RETAIL

is no longer table-stakes. It’s now quickly becoming the foundation for successful retailers. Retailers that don’t have that
foundation are going to be the ones who are facing distress in
the future.”
Steve Matyas agrees, and understands the importance of a
consistent and enriching omnichannel experience.
“The brands that offer a very good omnichannel experience
for the customer are the ones who are going to succeed,” he
explains. “The customer’s going to do their business with the
retailer that they have the best experience. So, you need to
ensure that you understand what your customers want, and
that you give them that experience across all touch-points
that you do business with them.”
Network redesign

Due in part to the explosion of e-commerce, and that tipping point that Lee refers to, retailers are now beginning to look
at their networks a little differently that
they used to.
“One of the most interesting things happening right now is the impact of e-commerce on the demand
for space,” says Tony Hernandez, Ryerson University. “Most
retailers are assessing their real estate needs and looking at
ways to maximizing the use of their space? E-commerce is
deﬁnitely changing the landscape. The challenge for retailers going forward is going to be balancing between providing products through e-commerce, the ﬂexibility of e-commerce, as well as managing costly store portfolios.”
Lee sees the same trend and suggests that retailers who
really re-imagine themselves will be the ones that are well
positioned for success down the line.
“The redesign of the retail network is being forced by the
omnichannel revolution,” she says. “A lot of retailers today
are looking at their store networks and wondering how they
can tweak it for better optimization. This redesign might
mean that you have showroom stores in certain trade areas or
smaller huts or simply in-store kiosks to lower overall costs.
A lot of retailers are actually making this decision to undergoing this redesign so they can reallocate capital from savings of the redesign and reinvesting it into omnichannel. The
role of the store is going to start to change. It doesn’t mean
that customers won’t be coming in to the store, it means that
a retailers overall value proposition has started to change.”
Real estate creativity

Not only are retailers looking at redesigning their store networks, their also
looking at real estate differently.
“Retailers are becoming increasingly inventive regarding the way they’re looking
at real estate,” says Hernandez. “They’re
looking at different locations and new locations than they
traditionally have.”

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Hernandez also believes that retailers will
take much more risks when it comes to real
estate, and many will be looking to enter into
more ﬂexible lease terms.
“A lot of retailers are going to be looking
at terms that will be a lot more beneﬁcial for
them as a business,” he explains. “This means
terms that are on a go forward basis. And,
there’s also going to be a lot more mixed use
development. It points to the fact that retailers are going to go to where the market is. If
they need to change their space or the way in
which they use their space to operate in smaller stores or multi-level stores, they’ll take on
the risks of those spaces and trying new concepts. That’s been one of the trends over the
last few years that will deﬁnitely continue.”
Digitizing retail

One way some retailers
are starting to re-imagine
themselves is through the
digitzation of the traditional retail space.
“The entire digitization
of the space, including ubiquitous connected
screens, will help some retailers interact with
consumers better,” explains Joel. “There are
technologies today that enable and allow retailers to use a mobile device o actual see the
people moving through the store. You can
spin that into understanding that consumers
have an immense computational power in the
palms of their hands. When stores are looking at them, they’re looking at stores and they
have access to information. This transcends
the physical space. When you have two
people walking together in a store it’s no longer two people shopping, you have thousands
of people shopping at that moment, sharing
and breathing and Facebooking. That adds
another layer of communications and marketing connections. The massive intersection
of e-commerce meeting the physical retail
level, which we’re starting to see, is going to
become much more pervasive.”
Competition

Competition comes in
shapes and sizes. And,
unfortunately for retailers
operating in Canada, the
competition is set to amplify in a couple crucial areas.

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