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What's In Store? February 2019
Red Ant's regular look behind the headlines at retail and lifestyle brands' challenges and conversations, with expert views and actionable insight.
Overcoming the ‘Amazon effect' with good digital store strategy
A new report by Oracle NetSuite – ‘Surviving the Amazon effect’ – suggests that it ‘can dramatically raise customer expectations for things like frictionless commerce, personalisation, the range of products available and the information relating to each item, and fast, reliable and cheap or free delivery and returns’.
According to Retail Gazette, the report suggests that Amazon has conditioned customers to expect to have access to detailed product information, be able to order, check status and request returns or report issues online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
While high street retailers may not be able to compete directly with the might and size of Amazon, the report concludes that those that have not adapted with the times and embraced new, frictionless ways of trading with customers face the possibility that their business could become untenable.
Red Ant says:
It’s true that customers have become more demanding, but that’s not because they want too much – it’s because, until recently, retailers have offered too little. There are lessons to be learned from Amazon – paying attention to what customers are telling you about when, where and how they want to buy is by far the most important. The only way to deliver what customers accustomed to Amazon-style service are looking for is to effectively connect online with offline through a digital platform. This offers customers the best of both worlds – the kind of frictionless shopping they’ve come to expect coupled with something they just can’t get online – an in-store experience where they can see, feel and ask advice about that they’re buying.
Easy to implement?
It’s reassuringly straightforward to overcome the Amazon effect with RetailOS® – with more than 60 out-of-the-box integrations and a suite of apps to cover everything from clienteling to click and collect and sales assisted by AI’s machine learning capabilities, your digital store can be up and running in a matter of weeks without disrupting business as usual.
Time to activate? Six weeks to analyse, plan and start implementation.
Find out more about RetailOS®.
