design:retail - June 2018 - 6

editor's note

006

Silos Belong
on Farms

ALISON EMBREY MEDINA
EDITOR IN CHIEF/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

alison.medina@emeraldexpo.com
@dretaileditor

HE KEY THREAT to retail
in the near term is not
e-commerce, physical store
attrition or even Amazon-
the key threat to retail in
the next months, years and
decades is stagnation. It's that business
leaders won't get out of their own way and
allow their teams to innovate effectively. It's
that CEOs will continue to wrangle boardrooms and Wall Street, instead of leading as
retail visionaries. The threat is that retail will
be a follower and even worse-a laggard-
instead of an industry that leads innovation.
I recently returned from the Retail
Innovation Conference in New York, where
a diverse mix of brands, retailers, innovators and makers met to learn and discuss
the future of retail innovation. The tone for
the conference-and for the heart of retail
today as we know it-was stated very clearly by
the first keynote speaker, shopping behavioralist
Ken Hughes. He said that the "phygital" age of retail is upon us (physical + digital), and that retail
today has to be here, be there, be everywhere the
customer is. "Forget omnichannel-retail needs to
be omnipresent," he said. Rather than fearing an
innovation-led future, retail needs to embrace the
changing tides and dive straight in to a more omnipresent, customer-centric future. "We have to view
changes as opportunities, not threats," he added.
Steve Dennis, president of strategic advisory firm
SageBerry Consulting LLC, reiterated the need for
retail to think outside the box when it comes to integrating their go-to-market strategies of physical
with digital. "Retail has to break down the silos," he
said. "Silos belong on farms." In his view, within retail organizations there should be no e-commerce

JUNE 2018

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

department and stores department-it should all
just be retail. And it should be everywhere.
For this to happen, the C-Suite not only has to
buy in, but also has to lead, initiate and direct the
implementation downward. "Innovation cannot
be grassroots," said Clay Johnson, CIO of Walmart
Stores Inc., during his keynote speech. "Our CEO
Doug McMillon leads our Transformation Development Team." He stated that Walmart's innovation
efforts are "people led, tech empowered," meaning
the company has found a healthy balance of integrating new technologies and systems that work for the
people (both customers and associates) that they will
directly impact. This mindset has enabled a company
as large-scale as Walmart to experiment and invest
in AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning)
and RPA (robotic process automation), in addition to
computer vision and natural language processing.

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

Common themes from the conference
also included:
1. There is no apocalypse-it's a false narrative. (Total retail sales were up $232 billion
in 2017.)
2. Retail is not dying...boring retail is dying.
Many are still drowning in a sea of sameness. Winning retailers are reimagining
both the store and customer experiences,
from first interaction to final payment (and
the mix of online and offline channels that
are touched along the way).
3. The multipoint, omnichannel consumer
(i.e. someone who shops online, in-store
and on mobile) is a much more valuable
customer than an online-only customer
(three times as valuable). This is why we
are seeing digital native pure-play brands
begin to open brick-and-mortar stores at a
feverish pace.
4. Customers today have more access than ever.
Feed into that, rather than fear it.
5. We need to ignite a culture of experimentation
in retail-test, learn, iterate and fail fast.
There is a true transformation happening at
retail right now. Don't be a laggard; help lead the
innovation forward. A Chinese proverb quoted by
Dennis: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years
ago. The second-best time is now."

http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

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