Consumer Retail Collaboration

The retail omni market has changed the way that consumers interact with retailers and retail leaders such as Amazon is fueling these new consumer interactions to develop relationships with consumers in new ways that allows the leaders to develop a lasting relationship.  Retail is a relationship business model and while the market and the methods of interactions changes through the use of technology the simple fact of the matter is that retail is still a relationship business model that is changing from a model of direct person to person interaction to a virtual interaction supported by technology.  This interaction method is being driven in many ways by the new generation of shoppers that have brought a very high level of comfort with technology to drive the change into the market.

Sometimes I think that retailers make much more out of the omni market than is necessary.  Retailers always seem to be focused on the technology and enamored with new technology rather than how to use the technology to improve the relationship.  I think this is because technology can desensitize people and cause them to forget a critical goal of technology which is to allow people to interact in a manner and at a time that is convenient to them.  Technology is meant to improve the human capabilities and provide for an improved lifestyle. This means that technology is meant to enhance capabilities and one of the key capabilities technology can improve is interactions which is a key factor in retail.  This is the key reason why technology has moved to such an important place in retail.

The retail market is probably in the forefront of the technology integration because consumers are driven to change the way they shop as a result of their lifestyle changes and their need to shift activities to support their lifestyle.  The embrace of technology by consumers and the capabilities provided by high speed Internet access provided the catalysts that drove the changes in the retail market and the development of the retail omni market. The third ingredient driving the retail omni market is social network and social technologies such as Facebook and Pinterest for instance.  The social technologies delivered the relationship aspect of the business model and more importantly provided a key tool to support consumer and retailer interactions.

Now it almost seems that retailers have tipped the scales too far in the direction of impersonal retail and eliminate personal interaction.  Retailers unfortunately are driving this impersonal direction as a means to reduce costs and not as a means to improve consumer relationships.  Granted retailers are focused on simplification of the shopping and purchasing process to allow consumers to streamline the process, however these retailers in some ways are missing an opportunity to develop the relationship that will ensure shoppers return.  Retailers must be careful that they don’t simply add an impersonal simplification of purchasing to the strain of a low price merchandise strategy.

Retailers such as Amazon seem to understand the benefits of consumer relationships and have included this in their focus on changing the retail marketplace.  I see this as a key reason for their success and also a key reason for the continued struggle of the large legacy retailers. Retailers must stop focusing on a lowest price strategy and impersonal simplification of the shopping process, these are flip sides of the same coin and start focusing on the relationship business model.