Realizing Collaborative Network

There is definitely a lot of potential benefits to the collaborative market and that is why you see the forward thinkers and trend setters such as Amazon in the retail marketplace moving in this directions, its a natural next step to transformation of the retail marketplace to a collaborative marketplace.  There is also a great deal of planning coordination and change required to realize the benefits of the collaborative marketplace, including technology, process, partners and culture. Becoming part of the collaborative network and realizing the benefits from the collaborative marketplace will take planning, coordination and patience and the results will not only deliver the benefits, it will also prepare the market for the next iterative change that will come.  The collaborative network is the next step in the retail market transformation and there is no shortcut through and you cannot simply buy a solution, it still requires culture changes to integration the collaborative practices and capabilities into the retail market.

There is a common theme flowing through each of the changes in the retail transformation and that theme is retailer culture change.  This is not to say that the retailer culture has not changed through the transformation from the single change to the omni channel marketplace, it is to say that the retailer culture must continuously change in order to meet the demands of the marketplace.   This is probably the greatest realization of the market transformative changes, however it is also as common as the nose on your face,since retail is a social activity the retail market must continuously transform as the social interactions change. The is the greatest realization for retailers and while I do see that retailers have overcome their hesitation they still have not embraced a practice of experimentation and still hesitate I think because of fear of failure.

The collaborative network is the next transformation of the the business networking that is now facing the market as a result, really, of the need of the market to support the demands of their consumers.  This collaborative network transformation comes about as a result of the demands of the marketplace along with improvements in technology. The collaborative network came about as a result of a few forward thinking partners is the supply chain that put together technology and social networking practices to allow them to communicate and most importantly offer new services to the network.  There will always be forward thinking companies that will push the limits and now the technology capabilities make these changes even easier to deliver and experimentation is pushing changes at an ever increasing velocity. This means that the retailer culture must change to sense, embrace and encourage change more quickly.

The realization of the collaborative network, then must also result in the realization that the retailer culture must incorporate change in their acceptance and embrace of new technology to support experimentation in their relationships and their services.  One important concept to realize in this transformation is the importance of continuous change process to sense and respond to the changes in the consumer social networking. The change, I think, is to realize that shopping is a social experience for consumers and therefore shopping, and purchasing, will change as the social networking practices change.