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Amazon Go – What should retailers Stop, Start and Continue?

Lessons in retail survival are increasingly clear – change is not an option

By Chris H. Petersen

Image Credit: Amazon.com

If you did not hear about Amazon's launch of its new Go store in Seattle, you had to be living under a rock. Amazon's new convenience "grab and go" format was grabbing headlines in the trade press, as well as mainstream media. Some pundits are calling the Go format the reinvention of bricks and mortar retail. When you crawl under the cover of the technology required, it is expensive and may not easily scale. However, the real question for the rest of retail is not Amazon's success with Go, but how they should respond.

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Few retailers can copy Amazon, nor should they try. Each must honestly evaluate how they can meet rising customer demands.

A New Era of Content Management and Strategic Collaboration

By Chris H. Petersen

One of the most misunderstood and missed dynamics of retail today is the renewed importance of “content.” Historically, brands focused on mass marketing of products that drove product content creation and distribution. Brands provided “air cover content” for launching products and educating customers. Brand content was also the “stuff” of retail ads, promotions and in-store merchandising. So, what changed?

 

What has changed is consumer behavior and expectations. Transformation from physical to digital retail created many new points of access for customers. More than 75% of today’s customers begin their journey online. Another layer of complexity is that consumers are increasingly using their smartphones to research and shop. Consumer-facing content is now dispersed across many channels, systems and the cloud. Consequently, a major challenge for both brands and retailers in today’s ecosystem is how to curate the “rich product content” that engages customers early, often, and even after the sale. 

Image Credit: OneSpace.com

“More is not better. Only better is better.”

Adding more technology does not mean that they will come or buy  

By Chris H. Petersen

Image Credit: https://www.ces.tech

Along with 180,000 other humans who converged on Las Vegas last week, I attended CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Every tech gadget imaginable filled the millions of square feet of exhibition space. From drones, to self-driving vehicles, to rolling stores. AI and robotics were everywhere, including a robot designed to fold clothes that did not exactly accomplish the task, at least reliably. The pervasive theme of CES seems to be that more is better. More technology is better. More gadgets are better. Bigger and faster are better. The reality is that only a handful of the CES gadgets will ever become viable products in retail actually purchased by consumers. Spoiled by choice, today's customers are more finicky than ever. The question is whether all those brands and manufacturers will understand that the "C" in CES determines when and how better is better.

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For today's spoiled consumers, adding more features does not make it better. Better is better when consumers perceive value for them.