I am excited to share with you an upcoming webinar “Driving Results: Clarity and Sustainability in Today’s Retail.” This timely presentation will cover several key business imperatives facing retailers today. Click here to register TODAY for this November 17 event (Noon Eastern)
Consumer-Centric Retailing:
Consumers are the backbone of the economy in many developed countries and in the U.S. personal consumption represents an amazing 71% of GDP (view Bureau of Economic Analysis). The National Retail Federation continues to see the economy impacting consumer spending with expectations for holiday spending to drop by 1% to $437.6 billion with more than 4 in 10 shoppers acknowledging sales or discounts as the prime motivator for choosing to spend their money at a store, whereas only 4.4% were motivated to spend due to helpful and knowledgeable customer service.
Shoppers are looking for great deals, exceptional values, and a sense of "excitement" before they separate from their hard earned money. It would be difficult to argue against retail industry's dynamic nature where the proof of shopper insight, proper planning, and flawless execution is measured each day at checkout, be it a physical or virtual. The value in most industries is unlocked when the consumer makes a purchase of a product or a service.
So a reasonable person would tend to agree that this ‘shopper' or ‘consumer' is key to the success, not only of retailers of all stripes, but of their suppliers, wholesalers, transportation providers, manufacturers, farmers, growers, and workers across the globe. Clearly, gaining insights into the consumer's confidence and sentiment is important in times of reduced spending, but even more so when you're re-positioning your company for the eventual economic recovery.
Collaborative Communities:
Combine this customer-centric view of retailing with the technology-enabled construct of the early 21st century that is social networks and an opportunity is created to engage with her in innovative and more meaningful ways. Yet these also will challenge your existing organizational thinking and either spawn new business processes or modify existing ones. Imagine ten years ago Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin were not even in the lexicon. Today hundreds of millions of people use them every day around the globe. CPG brands and retailers are finding a home on Twitter as a way to communicate with consumers; recent research from Penn State University found that one in five tweets is brand related – brand engagement using community-based social networks is here to stay.
Commitment to Sustainabiity:
Another macro trend that has been building momentum over the past several years is ‘sustainability.’ I’ve blogged on Rise of the ‘Unreasonable’ Man: Wal-Mart and Sustainability earlier this year and sustainability continues to gain increasing presence in board rooms and CEO agendas across industries around the globe. Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer, Whole Foods, and many other retailers are taking concrete actions on incorporating social responsibility into their business model while helping to drive top line profitability.
For those interested in influencing the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, you can check out Hopenhagen to make your voice heard.
Turning Data into Actionable Insights:
Lastly, these new opportunities will create challenges with a whole lot of new data – structured and unstructured. How will you use your newly acquired insights and what metrics will you use to evaluate and act on this new data? Can you incorporate that with your existing merchandising decisions, supply chain processes, or store operations? Can this information be tailored to different users based on roles and decision points in your processes and across your organization by district, region or banner? With the opportunities open to retailers today it is imperative that there is ease of data consumption regardless of source and type as you work to impact the top and bottom lines. I invite you to join us for this informative webinar with tangible ideas for your business. The following speakers will be ready to field your questions:
Verlin Youd, SVP and Global Head of Trade Industries (Retail, Wholesale, Travel & Logistics) will address current retail trends and the need to consider collaborative community model in your business
Chris Puglise, Director Industry Solution Marketing, Retail will investigate how gaining traction on your sustainability journey can benefit your bottom line while being socially responsible
Russ Hill, Senior Director, Worldwide Industry Marketing, SAP BusinessObjects will explore the use of role-based dashboards to collect insights and transform data into action impacting top and bottom lines.
Click here to register TODAY for this November 17 event (Noon Eastern)
See you there!!!
