Retail Collaboration Focus

Every activity, program or initiative requires a focus and the retail collaboration program is no different.  Retailer have been collaborating with their partners for a very long time in a rather one sided collaboration where retailers retained the ultimate control of the collaborative partnership.  Now though the circumstances are different and if anyone in the collaborative network is in control it is the consumer and retailers must shift their focus to a more outward and flexible focus on developing opportunities with and encouraging the interest of consumers.  The collaborative focus has shifted to one supporting the retailer needs to one supporting the consumer needs. This is a simple and yet a very dramatic shift in focus and will be difficult for many retailers to accept and let alone embrace.

This shift in focus will be very difficult for many retailers and especially the large legacy retailers because they will be forced to give up control in their space.  This will require a change in culture and the practices for these retailers to shift their focus from one of controlling their shopping and purchasing practices to one of shared ownership and taking guidance from not only consumers but also from the other participants in the marketplace.  This means that retailers must shift their focus from one leading the offerings and capabilities based on the greatest benefit and best cost structure for their operations to one of flexibility and sharing support of capabilities.

This shift in focus will help the retailer to shift their focus from one of defining and developing capabilities to an open collaborative environment where all partners, including consumers take part in the development and implementation of new capabilities.  This shift to focus on flexibility will allow the retailer to fully engage in the omni marketplace through shared services and capabilities. It is not necessary for any one partner to develop capabilities to support all marketplace requirements, the collaborative practices will allow all participants in the marketplace to share services to offer best of breed capabilities.  The direction and demands of the consumer to develop a social shopping marketplace that is made up of a wide range of collaborative partners to offer services to support the consumer demands and ensure the success of all participants.

All participants in this social and collaborative marketplace will soon find that the sum of the partners, and especially their partners capabilities and specialties will make for a more robust marketplace that can quickly adapt and delivery new capabilities to support consumer demands.  This new capabilities will be put together from a combination of small and iterative changes combined in a flexible distributed platform that grow and flexes with the changing demands of the market. The collaborative retail marketplace will allow retailers, and all participants in the market, to both choose from and by the same token add to a catalog of services and capabilities that can be brought together based not on the limitations of any one partner but based on the collaborative network made possible by the change in collaborative focus.