Como se compete num mundo de Amazons e Zalandos et al? (parte II)

Parte I.

A parte I terminou desta forma:

"Como se compete num mundo de Amazons e Zalandos et al? Criando um mundo alternativo, apostando em Mongo. Em Mongo faz todo o sentido trabalhar um ecossistema, fazer um jogo de longa duração, envolver mais actores.
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O que é que o sector tem feito nos últimos anos? Promover a marca Portugal! Como é que isso pode ser usado?"

Entretanto encontrei um artigo muito, muito bom que ajuda a  começar a responder ao título pergunta do postal, "How Fashion Can Fight Amazon". O artigo é mesmo muito bom e merece uma leitura bem mastigada:

"Yet, despite all these recent achievements, innovations and accolades, there are some adjectives that I can’t ever recall hearing mentioned in the same sentence as Amazon. Conspicuous by their absence in most commentary on the internet giant are words like fun, beautiful and joyous. You’ll very rarely, if ever, hear Amazon described in these terms.
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And that’s no coincidence. Amazon isn’t a fun experience. Friends don’t meet for dinner and then go on an Amazon shopping spree. People don’t take selfies of themselves ordering things on Amazon.
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As for beauty, Amazon is about as aesthetically pleasing as a wood chipper. But, like a wood-chipper, Amazon is purpose-built, not for beauty but for efficiency, expediency and volume.
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And, regardless of its early success, I have yet to hear anyone recount stories about what a “joy” it is to shop using Echo. Nor can I recall anyone giddily running from one room to another pushing their Dash Buttons. The point of these technologies is not to elicit joy but rather to eliminate altogether any consciousness of shopping.
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Amazon is a passionless yet wickedly effective means of consuming. They’ve taken what used to be a sometimes painful, arduous multi-site online buying experience and literally brought it down to one-stop and zero clicks with Alexa. It is the all-you-can-eat buffet of consumerism. It’s the Wikipedia of shopping, which is to say that whatever you’re looking for is probably there but getting it is never what you’d call a memorable experience.
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And so, as "cheap" is to Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Rolex, fun is to Amazon — it’s simply not in the brand’s DNA. Nor was it ever intended to be. Jeff Bezos never set out to create a delightful shopping experience. Amazon is quite simply the shortest distance between wanting and getting."

Se segue este blogue com regularidade já sabe como eu penso: se a Amazon faz isto e é muito boa, fará algum sentido ir torrar dinheiro a competir no mesmo campeonato que ela? Como me posso diferenciar da Amazon? Por que tenho de entrar no negócio da venda, quando sou um produtor?
Voltaremos a isto numa outra parte.

"So, if truly great retail can be considered fine art (which I fully believe it should be) then Amazon is the paint-by-numbers equivalent. It’s fast, easy and simple but about as artistic as Dogs Playing Poker. In other words, Amazon has — to its credit — reduced shopping to a science, but in doing so has also sapped it of its aesthetic, social, kinetic and human joy.
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And it's this one tiny yet glaring chink in Amazon's seemingly impenetrable suit of armour that may just offer their competitors an opportunity to inflict a small wound, or at least save themselves from outright annihilation. Using art to counter Amazon’s science, retailers may just stand a chance of surviving, if not thriving in their shadow."

E aqui começa a minha incomodidade com a parte I. Num mundo de ecossistemas avança-se sozinho com um site, sem trabalhar a estória, sem criar carisma, sem fazer sonhar, sem desenhar e alimentar a experiência:

"Don’t build stores. Build stories..
Ultimately as humans we acquire products but we invest emotionally in stories. The world doesn’t need another concrete commercial real estate box with racks, registers and shelving, or another cold, catalogue-like website. It needs physical and online shopping places that celebrate unique brand stories. It needs enchanted spaces and installations that promote interactions with products. It needs powerful experiences that engage on every sensory level. Great retail must be nothing less than a form of performance art where the cost of admission is a purchase only-too-gladly made.[Moi ici: Por favor voltar a trás e reler com calma uma e outra vez este último sublinhado]
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Don’t conduct commerce. Create community.
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Building a tightly connected community of customers who are galvanised by a common passion, place, idea or interest is the surest way to cultivate a sense of community and an atmosphere of fun. Doing so raises your stores and websites beyond the level of commerce and into the realm of becoming powerful places for communal gathering.
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Don’t sell mass. Sell me.[Moi ici: Meu Deus!!! Como isto é acerca de Mongo, como isto é um problema para os gigantes atolados na sua suckiness e desejosos de nos verem como plancton]
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Mass is the realm of Amazon, which has little interest in personalising products. Personalisation costs time, money and effort — all of which dilute Amazon’s competitive advantages of selection, speed and affordability. So, find a means of personalising and customising products and solutions for your customers. This can be by leveraging clientele data, using technology to offer personalised solutions, or by offering bespoke and customised options, replete with concierge levels of service. Regardless of how you achieve it, it’s essential to leave every customer feeling that your store, your products and your staff were there especially for them.
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Don’t measure sales. Measure experiences."

Vêem algo disto na parte I? Eu vejo uma espécie de Lefties para vender os restos que não se conseguiram despachar.

Continua.