Cloud Networking

We started with Facebook and that expanded into Google+ and Pinterest and Vining and You Tube and and LinkedIn and an explosion of most likely hundreds of other social and professional networking platforms that are coming to life and dying on a basis that is quickening as technology capabilities grow.  The glue, or the one thing that ties these together now is the expansion of the cloud technologies.  Cloud technologies provide the platform and framework for social networks to come into life and expand on an almost effortless basis.  The cloud is turning storage and the network into givens, or assumptions, rather than hurdles to growth.  This is one of the most important benefits provided by cloud technologies and it is also one of the greatest impacts to the social networking and retail landscape.

Cloud technologies have expanded the capabilities of social networking by providing one framework that both networks and people can connect for communication.  The cloud is another major enhancement in technology that I see as at least as important as broadband internet access.  Think about ancient history, fi you’re old enough, when you used to dial in for Internet access at 56 kbm, I know that when I first obtained high speed cable Internet access my reaction was that it turned the computer and the Internet into a usable tool that would be more powerful than TV.  Then came high speed wireless access and now you are able to maintain high speed Internet access any where and any time.  

Cloud technologies, storage and services on top of high speed Internet access has allowed the social networks to expand into use in every corner of your personal and professional lives.  Consumers have embraces these technologies now to drive their demands for shopping capabilities.  These demands are based on the imagination of the customer and the interaction across the social networks that is made possible by cloud technologies, storage and services.  Consumers are using these tools and capabilities as a very powerful tool to drive their demands of the retailers and the shopping environment and general practices.  The cloud and social networks have allowed consumers to turn the tables on retailers and take control of the shopping environment.  

 

Retailers are just now coming to the realization of the consumer capabilities and potential impact to the retail shopping experience.  Unfortunately for the retailers, they seem to have spent the previous few years fighting these trends and trying to maintain a control over the shopping experience within their store and eCommerce sites.  These same retailers are now beginning to realize the power of the consumer and the impact of their demands on their success.  This is where the retailers should embrace the technologies, storage and services that are provided by the cloud.  Retailers can no longer depend on their own proprietary software or shopping environments to shape the consumer shopping demands, they must realize and embrace this change in control that is being demanded by consumers in order to maintain their success.

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?

Commerce 2.0 Partnerships

The cloud technology and services revolve around providing a platform for collaboration and developing partnerships and the objective for consumer shopping matches these capabilities.  This is why consumers have embraced the technology to support their demands in social networking and also shopping practices.  Shopping is simply an extension of social networking for most consumers, of course everyone either knows or is the exception to this rule of the person that simply shops to acquire their needs and nothing else.  I think this exception however is a small percentage in the overall universe of consumer shopping.  Shopping as a social networking extension is really the key focus of consumers and must be taken into account by retailers in order to meet the demands of the consumers.

Consumers have taken to the concept of shopping as a social networking exercise and are developing partnerships and networks of services that enhance their shopping by providing guidance and notifications of special deals and sales.  I have been fascinated for quite some time with the range and focus of these services that range from Groupon providing notifications of specials to Retail Me Not which provides notifications of specials based on retailers that are near your current location.  These services all provide a means to rate your experience and also broadcast your evaluations of products and retail outlets and market channels.  

The next logical step for these services is to develop partnerships with retailers and provide their partners with the shopping data that these services have been collecting since their beginning.  These services do not need to provide information regarding individual consumers that are members of their services, however they can provide valuable trend information to retail partners.  The retailers can also then provide exclusive specials to their service partners to strengthen the relationship with consumers.  Retailers must be hungry for information and these services can provide a broad spectrum of shopping metrics to identify trends in both products and sales strategies.  These services can provide retailers with another viewpoint that is outside of the retailer’s culture and may identify trends the retailer would normally overlook.

This also provides a great opportunity to partner with the end consumer as well.  Most retailers and especially the large retailers have historically treated their customers as just that, a customer that simply purchases whatever product is offered on the shelves.  This is especially true in relation to commodity products such as detergent or paper products.  Because of the cloud and pure eCommerce retailers that can enter the market from anywhere in the world the view of the customer must change in order for the retailers to retain their customer share.  This is another area where the retailer can bring their customers closer and develop a partner relationship by including them in the decision process and actively seeking their contributions for suggestions on product, service and shopping habits.  Instead of reacting to consumer demands the retailer must seek out the consumer participation and partner with the consumer.

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?

Commerce 2.0 Cloud Framework

Cloud technologies and services have brought retail and eCommerce to an interesting crossroad where the retailer must make a decision that truly is one of those life and death decisions for the long term success of the retailer.  The industry has reached this crossroads as the result of the spread and availability of technology and especially the technology and cost of the technology available to the consumer.  The wireless network and smartphone industry has been a key driving factor to bringing us to this crossroads through that cloud technology and services that are driven by that industry.  This cloud framework provides the technology at a cost that consumers have embraced to change their shopping methods and demands on the retail industry.

This cloud framework is truly a collaborative framework that supports the consumers’ collaboration across social networks and technology services and this framework then changed the shopping demands of the consumer to support their lifestyle.  Consumers have embraced this framework because it allows them to access information, images, music and social networks any time and from any device.  Consumers have already begun pushing the envelop of the shopping experience based on these mobile and cloud technologies to collaboration across their networks to enhance and improve their shopping experience. Consumers have jumped to the next platform or framework of commerce they have eliminated their view of market channels to flatten to one inclusive shopping experience where the mobile and cloud tools provided a framework for consumers to collaborate and shop based on their needs and desires at the time.  

Retailers, on the other hand, as an industry have yet to embrace and embed this mobile and cloud tools and services framework to integrate into this new collaborative framework.  Retailers for the most part are still at least a couple of ‘releases’ behind the demands of the consumer due to their limitations from internal technology limitations and also their failure to fully embrace the cloud and mobile technology framework.  I see this as a reluctance to walk away from internal technology investments that may not have been fully capitalized and more importantly a reluctance to embrace the collaborative nature of the cloud and mobile technologies.  I believe that many retailers have hesitated to embrace the collaborative cloud framework because they are stuck in the command and control culture that made up the business and retail environment for so long.  

It can be extremely difficult to break from a current culture and practice unless forced by outside influences.  These outside influences from cloud and mobile technology are currently forcing retailers to recognize and address the new collaborative cloud framework with a speed and force that is new to the retail industry.  This is where the difficulty comes into play, the rate and force of change has been increasing quickly over the last few years and this will only increase more in the future.  Retailers must embrace this cloud framework in order to survive and even flourish in this environment going forward.  The rate of change will cause success and more importantly failures with a speed that can be overwhelming, retailers must embrace the cloud framework in order to survive.

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?