Retail is dead?

Retail is dead

Hah! They said that about the horse & buggy industry.

We’ve been saying it about retail for over fifteen years.  E-commerce is coming, catch the wave or be drowned by it. Soon there will be nobody left but Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.

Maybe this Christmas shopping season will be the final slide into oblivion for traditional real-world retailers. Or maybe not?

They’re not all losing to online. This week’s shopping excursion did expose the disturbing site of Sear’s liquidation sales at one end of the mall, but BestBuy and the Hudson’s Bay seemed busy and full of real shoppers.

Survival of the fittest still applies. The laggards at the back of the pack will get picked off by the predators. You can’t hide, but you don’t have to roll over and die, either. Evolution and survival requires adaptation.

Pay attention. Learn from new competitors and their business models, online or otherwise. Copy what seems to be working and can be used to attract and retain your customers too.

The latest versions of the new economy may include robots and artificial intelligence, drones and resource-sharing, but some old rules still apply:

1. Do your homework before trying to implement new technology.

2. Focus on your business objectives, not on what’s cool, or hot, or trendy.

3. Do not stubbornly fail to fix what is clearly broken.

4. Flip the old WWW on its head and remember MMM – Manage, Monitor and Measure.

5. Too many new initiatives are driven by fear or greed. Be smarter than that.

Be better. Do better.

Your Uncle Ralph, Del Chatterson

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