Why The Collaborative Marketplace

The collaborative marketplace is the next progression, or phase, in the retail market evolution and this is probably a more important step than almost any other phase in the retail market evolution.  The business environment and therefore the supporting tools and capabilities are changing and growing into a collaborative framework that can efficiently and effectively support their needs and the retail consumer market is no exception.  There is currently probably no better framework to support the evolving consumer demands than a collaborative marketplace and consumers themselves are driving these changes more that any retailer, outside of Amazon. I see this as the driving factor for some time, I won’t say years because each development in the retail evolution comes more quickly than the last.  

We have entered into a phase of development and expectations from the consumer that can be overwhelming for a retailer. This is why the collaborative marketplace is so important to the retail marketplace and why retailers and consumers are flocking to this framework.  The collaborative marketplace aligns more closely to social network practices and capabilities and consumers have embraced these practices wholeheartedly in a manner that is turning the retail market upside down. This social aspect of shopping is nothing new in the retail marketplace, however in many aspects the social capabilities in the eCommerce platform have been lacking.  This is the key reason for the evolution of the collaborative marketplace in retail.

Consumers have been searching for a social aspect to shopping and purchasing and the collaborative marketplace provides the platform and the capabilities to coordinate and integrate a social network interaction while still shopping and purchasing when and where it makes the most sense for the consumer.  This is the strength and the attraction of the collaborative marketplace, it allows consumers to put together the capabilities they desire at the time and the collaborative network provides a means for consumers to interact with and then complete the sale using specialized services and capabilities that meet their needs at that time.  Simply put, this is why the collaborative marketplace is the next logical step in the evolution of the retail marketplace.

This new phase requires visionary partners and participants to drive the capabilities and the interaction.  The most important aspect to the collaborative network is the interaction across all participants in the network.  The first step in the evolution was the omni market aspect and now these visionary retailers will take these capabilities and then incorporate the collaborative interaction that extends the social aspect to create a truly interactive and cohesive platform to engage not only with consumers but also with specialty service providers and niche retailers to create a consumer experience that continues to draw attention and return of the consumer.

This is an exciting and scary platform for retailers and unfortunately there is no other choice than to embrace.  Retailers must learn to share and collaborate in order to survive and these capabilities are all brought together into one platform in the collaborative marketplace.  I will serve retailers well to embrace these practices and create the type of collaborative platform that will support the changing consumer demands while also supporting the retailers’ needs to grow in the market and most importantly to prepare for the next phase in the retail evolution.

Collaborative Marketplace Direction

The retail collaborative marketplace is now on a trajectory to encourage and support more disruptive change in the retail market and I believe that Amazon is at the forefront of this disruption again.  This place leading the disruption is a comfort zone for Amazon and the collaborative marketplace is really the next logical step in the progression of Amazon drive to lead the market and deliver a shopping experience that supports the demands of the consumer shoppers.  This collaborative market extends the social commerce capabilities into the next level of interaction and also provides the framework to interact with other networks as necessary to support the shopping experience. This connectivity is especially exciting for the types of opportunities from the supply chain collaborative network that can support and drive further change in the market.  

The fascinating thing about the impact of Amazon on the market is their focus on changing the shopping experience almost at any cost.  This focus on change provides suggestions and creates the market through experimentation which I do not remember and not aware of other retailers in the market that are focused so single mindedly on changing the shopping experience.  The difference between Amazon and other retailers is really the confidence that Amazon shows in their capabilities and the trust in the consumer that wherever the market goes that Amazon will be able to meet and even create the new expectations. This almost single minded focus on change permeates across all Amazon practices, not only driving their commerce capabilities but also driving product development and other services, Prime being a great example of a market changing program that allowed Amazon to not only mainstream the eCommerce purchase but also tie together other Amazon capabilities and services to provide a value add, outside the box, proposition.

The direction of the collaborative marketplace, plain and simple, is to disrupt the retail marketplace through reshaping and encouraging new connections to support and develop new interaction and shopping methods.  The importance of the framework cannot be underestimated, this framework encourages connectivity across not only partners within the retail market but also partners across the supply chain and partners such a service providers that can support the purchase.  We have seen this pockets of these capabilities depending on the retailer, for instance Best Buy offers and encourages support and installations services from the Geek Squad. I can see the potential for home services and expansion of these services such as the services offered through Lowe’s and Home Depot for installation.

Imagination and confidence will fuel these changes and retailers with the confidence in their ability will be open to the consumer and retailer to imagine a new marketplace that creatively supports, and creates, consumer demands and expectations.  Frankly, this has been a key strength of Amazon, the imagination to create new services and marketplace along with the confidence that they will succeed in this new market wherever the changes take them. This has been a key strength of Amazon and a weakness in many other consumers.  I see this single factor of confidence as the key to the success and failure for many retailers. Many of the larger retailers have been hesitant to embrace change that could disrupt their culture and their current reality. We have seen though over and over that the larger retailers have been hesitant to embrace these new developments because of the impact on their existing practices.  This will be changing and reshaping the market as we move forward.

Collaborative Marketplace Experiments

I see the next phase in the retail marketplace coming as a result of and in reaction to the pressures of the retail marketplace as the time of the collaborative marketplace.  The market has gone through many cycles of capabilities and changes in consumer demands and now especially consumer capabilities have reshaped the market to meet their own demands.  I see this as a natural progression through growth and maturity of the market into a social commerce reality. This next reality in this progression of the collaborative marketplace incorporates the the existing capabilities with the collaborative network capabilities to create a new marketplace as the natural progression of the retail market growth.  The retail omni market is has provided an entranceway and a path to the incorporation of the collaborative network more closely into the retail marketplace as a means to sense and respond to the changing demands.

The retail omni market came as a progression of the retail omni channel capabilities and in hindsight I realize that these capabilities began the expansion into the next phase of the market.  I spoke at length previously of the social commerce aspect of the omni market capabilities and the need to extend the social networking capabilities to support the omni market demands. What I see now is the continue growth and maturity of this marketplace extending into the next phase to incorporate the extended collaborative network to support the changing demands and most importantly the increased experimentation in capabilities and new market opportunities.  I see this as a platform to support a continuous improvement process that will encourage and formalize the process to support the retail marketplace.

The retail market is well past the point where the individual retailer can hope to support the demands and the changes in the market on their own.  The introduction and growth of the collaborative marketplace provides the framework and the foundation to support and encourage the growth and the experimentation required to sense and respond to the increased demands of consumers and partners in the retail market.  As usual I see Amazon as a leader in this acceptance and incorporation of the collaborative marketplace. Amazon is probably best placed for this expansion because of their culture of experimentation and I see Amazon as filling a void and taking the step to the collaborative marketplace as a natural progression of their culture and their drive to improve the retail market to meet consumer demands or create consumer demands.

This collaborative market supports experimentation like no other market, in my opinion, and just as the omni channel and omni market drove changes through demands of consumers and acceptance of retailers the collaborative marketplace will also require a process and period of review and acceptance.  This again is being lead by forward leaning companies such as Amazon through the culture of experimentation. This culture of experimentation encourages Amazon and the collaborative network provides the framework and the technology to support experimentation. As usual though the retail marketplace in general is slow to recognize and react to these changes and unfortunately I see this same limiting wait and see culture as limiting may retailers’ acceptance and embrace of this collaborative marketplace until forced by market conditions.  This is really unfortunate because I believe the result will be further fallout and failure of retailers in this market.