Connected Retail Market

Consumers are beginning to change the retail market through their use of technology tools and wireless technology to better align with their changing lifestyles.  These same consumers are taking advantage of the changes that have already been put into play by retailers attempts to expand their offerings through the endless aisle strategy.  Manufacturers are now expanding their capabilities to interact directly with consumers as a result of the success of the endless aisles strategy and their extension of their supply chain directly to the consumer through parcel deliver.  Finally all of these retail segments and activities are being connected through Internet of Things and partner capabilities to connect the entire retail market.

As I mentioned, consumers are now utilizing the mobile and wireless technology advances in addition to the eCommerce and social networking technologies to remake the way they interact with the retail market and are reshaping the market to meet their changing needs.  These tools and technologies provide a connected retail marketplace that allows consumers to change their shopping practices and in turn these changes are changing the purchasing habits.  Consumers are no longer allowing large retailers to direct and shape their purchasing practices and are taking advantage of a connected retail market to allow them to shop and purchase based on their own rules.  

These changes spell a remaking of the retail market for a silo type of market to a fluid market that consumers change to meet their changing demands.  The key to this market is the consumer demands rather than the retailers offering.  Consumers are using technology to connect the partners and supporters of the retail market through mobile technology and third party tools such as email and text messaging and social networking tools.  Retailers and supply chain have been developing many of these pieces and now consumers are connecting these pieces to meet their own demands.  

Consumers are connecting functions and services across the entire supply chain from the supplier to the delivery of goods to the consumer.  These connections will allow the consumer to reshape the market at their pace and to meet their changing demands.  Consumers are using tools and the Internet of Things to support their own demands and this is in turn disrupting the retail market and the retailers in that market.  IN other words consumers are connecting and putting together new shopping and purchasing capabilities by connecting partners and activities in the retail market themselves rather than waiting for the retail market players to get around to supporting or not supporting the consumer desires.

Consumers are taking control of the retail market and retailers must develop a flexible means to interact and respond to these demands in order to remain successful.  These same demands of flexibility and connectivity must be supported across the entire supply chain and consumers are building this flexibility themselves with off the shelf tools rather than waiting for for the retail market to get around to offering these services.  

And now for the audience participation portion of the show…

ECommerce will have wide ranging impacts on both the retail and manufacturing sectors.  How can you focus these abilities to improve the consumer's experience?  Improving the consumer’s experience will require a re-evaluation of the sales channels, the manufacturing channels and practices and the supply chain channels and practices from the raw materials to the consumers’ homes.  In order to ensure and maintain success in this new reality you must harness the tools and capabilities in many new areas.  How can you support these continuously changing requirements?