Omni Channel Collaboration Direction

We are seeing from this most recent holiday season the effects of mobile technology on consumer shopping and purchasing practices and this is just the beginning of the changes.  Consumers are taking more control over their shopping and purchasing through these new capabilities and the rate of change will only increase.  Retailers must now react to these changes in order to maintain their relationship, and sales, with their customers.  Consumers at the same time are continuously expanding and their purchasing and shopping reach through social networks and technology capabilities.  This consumer embrace and drive for technology will drive changes to retail shopping and purchasing that we cannot forsee at this point.

I see these changes and being driven by consumers as a drive by consumers to take control of their shopping and purchasing to fit into their own best interests and budget.  In order to prepare and support these changes that are being driven by consumers the retailer must increase their flexibility and focus on collaboration with the consumer.  This focus on collaboration translates for the retailer into a focus on developing and maintaining a relationship.  This requires a long term focus and patience in developing the relationship that may not deliver immediate results.  This long term view requires a focus on long term results rather than short term sales.  This is a major change to the focus of many of today’s retailers.

Consumers are showing a willingness to blend the virtual and physical shopping and purchasing practices in a way that separates the two practices.  This was viewed as showrooming by the physical brick and mortar retailer and discouraged.  Consumers though have shown that they will not be deterred in their shopping and purchasing and will drive these changes into the retail market.  This translates into a requirement for retailers to separate the shopping and purchasing practices in order to succeed in this future retail market.

Amazon has taken the lead in this new retail experience and is eliminating the consumer hesitation to purchase online through their Prime program.  Amazon Prime allows the consumer to purchase virtually in the same manner that they purchase in the brick and mortar environment.  There is no reason now for the consumer to bundle purchases and this capability allows consumers to shop and purchase in a more natural manner.  Combine this capability with the existing customer relationship that Amazon has been developing and you have a very compelling opportunity for consumers to re-invent their practices.  

Many retailers now are forced into a position of playing catch-up to just maintain their sales and business.  This can be overcome with a long term focus on collaboration with the consumer that develops the type of relationship that will retain the consumer through the purchase.

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?

Omni Channel Collaboration Tools

Retailer collaboration with the consumer will encourage the customer to return to the web site and the store to shop and purchase, which is the ultimate retail goal - the sale.  With so many distractions now and especially since these distractions are increasing on what seems to be a daily basis, it is important for the retailer to provide the consumer with a reason to return.  Social networking and the extended consumer networks are continuously changing and expanding.  The mobile and smartphone technology and wireless capabilities encourage and support these expansions.  Fortunately for the retailer there are many social network tools that can be utilized by the retailer to expand their reach and encourage the consumer to return.

I am a proponent of using free or subscription based tools especially in the social network and collaboration space in large part because of the rate of change of the tools and capabilities within this space. This rate of change provides the feeling of freshness and sparks the curiosity of the consumer to experiment based on the encouragement and suggestions of their friends.  This is especially true of the younger consumers who are at the forefront of technology and social networking tools and capabilities.  I think that retailers have made a mistake in the past by not embracing this technology and the best example of this is ‘showrooming’ where the consumer shops in a brick and mortar store to example the product but then purchases the product online.  

There are two social networking tools that especially lend themselves to the retail space;

1. Pinterest - where the person selects and groups photos, web sites and blogs into groups of interest to publish to the world for feedback and suggestions.
2. Instagram - a Facebook with photos where the person extends their comments with photos for effect.

I think that Pinterest provides a great opportunity for the retailer to engage and collaborate with the consumer.  Pinterest allows for a mix of articles, pictures and comments to engage the consumer with suggestions on usage and product combinations that provide a type of virtual method to provide the consumer with ideas and product usage they they may not have realized on their own.

The challenge with technology and virtual shopping is the loss of suggestions and combinations of products into ensembles that is difficult to put together in the eCommerce site.  The social networking tools like Pinterest or Instagram allow for suggestions along with a framework for engaging the customer in a conversation and also engaging customers in a framework where they can define and build their own combinations.  The key to engaging and collaborating with the customer is a framework that allows participation and ownership of the conversation from the consumer perspective.   The consumer must feel in control of the relationship and social networking tools allows the control.

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?

Omni Channel Collaboration

The integration layer framework that separates the internal and external applications and business operations applications provides another value to the retailer and that is a method and framework to encourage and support collaboration across their business partners, suppliers, service providers and consumers.  In fact, I think the best way to reference the integration layer framework is to call it a collaboration layer framework.  This name focuses on the value that the integration layer provides to the business and also aligns with the realization and acceptance of the importance of collaboration in the long term success of the businesses.  

The omni channel retailer is in critical need of a means to quickly and easily connect and collaborate with partners and service providers to support the changing demands of consumer shopping and purchase practices.  This has become especially important after the most recent holiday season where the mobile sales volumes increased dramatically.  With the increased acceptance of smartphone technology and the increased network capacity and capabilities consumers are taking control of their shopping and purchasing practices to support their own personal requirements rather than fitting into any preconceived mold developed by retailers.  This requires that retailers improve their abilities to redirect and add features and capabilities at a rate that is continuously increasing.

The collaboration layer allows the retailer to focus on the value add features and functionality through a standard communication protocol that reduces the integration time and effort requirements.  This allows the retailer to focus on the collaboration and value derived from the collaboration without the need to re-invent the integration functions for each new partner.  This is a huge benefit, especially when you consider the opportunity to collaborate with consumers.  

The opportunity to collaborate with consumers is the next frontier that retailers must embrace in order to maintain sales and retain the customers.  This starts with customer programs designed to encourage community and interaction of the consumers, in other words, the retailer must provide a social network for their consumers that encourages the interaction between consumer and the retailer in addition to the interaction between consumers.  This consumer community can bring a great deal of value to the retailer from a customer retention perspective.  Customer retention is one of the keys to success for the retailer and must be nurtured in every step of the way.

Retailer customer collaboration should take the form of requesting feedback and advice from customers regarding products, and the type of service, both shopping and purchasing that provide the most value to the consumer.  Mobile technology allows the retailer to identify and embrace the customer as they enter the store, if that is the retailer provides a robust in-store wireless network access capability.  

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?