Tendências

Quando andava na 1ª classe já tínhamos aquela indefinição de saber se éramos 9 ou 10 milhões de portugueses a viver neste rectângulo. Agora, temos a previsão de lá para 2050 poderemos rondar os 7,5 milhões. Ou seja, um mercado doméstico a encolher.

Ou seja, as empresas que trabalham para o mercado interno vão ter de trabalhar cada vez mais só para não encolherem, ou para encolherem menos que o mercado.

Não é só o número de potenciais clientes que mudam, são também as suas expectativas, os seus sonhos, as suas necessidades. Por exemplo:

"The American population – the number of consumers – is growing less than 1% per annually. No product manager, no business manager, no CEO is going to be satisfied with revenue growth of less than 1% per year.
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“Less population will require fewer stores and less expansion, meaning that existing stores must become more productive,” Sway advises. “This sets up a perfect storm considering the increase in competition from online shopping.”
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the number of adult Americans in the middle-class, defined as people living in households that have incomes from two-thirds to double the national median, has fallen from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2015. And their share of the nation’s aggregate income has declined precipitously, from 62% in 1970 to 43% in 2014.
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These middle-class households simply have less money to spend on necessities, let alone discretionary purchases.
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While the middle-class sinks lower, the fortunes of those at the top of the income pyramid are rising. They are taking an inordinate amount of the nation’s income, rising from 29% in 1970 to 49% in 2014, and accumulating a greater share of wealth, more than seven-times that of middle-class households in 2013,
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One in five Americans live in a household with more than one generation – a record 60.6 million people, according to Sway, including about 40% of Millennials (18-to-34) who live with their parents or other family members, the largest percentage since 1940.
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“ There are now more households with dogs than there are with children, 43 million vs. 33 million .”
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“When Millennials do start having children, the numbers aren’t expected to surge as much as with prior generations,” Sway says. “Businesses depending on kids would be well advised to keep an eye on this birth population slowdown.”
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By 2020 the Labor Department predicts that women’s labor force participation will be lower than in 1990.
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“Since women account for about 80% of all consumer-purchasing decisions, reducing their presence and power in the economy may not bode well for retailers,” Sway says.
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Further Asians are going to be the biggest in-bound ethnic group. “Asians are now on target to surpass Hispanics as the largest foreign-born group in American by 2055.” Today they make up less than 6% of the U.S. population."

Trechos retirados de "9 Demographic Trends Shaping Retail's Future"

Gente que não percebe a importância da batota

"Uma garrafeira deve organizar eventos para mostrar aos clientes a dinâmica criativa que ocorre em todas as regiões vitícolas. É isso que as deve distinguir dos hipermercados.
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Depois de uma vista de olhos às prateleiras, dois vinhos chamaram a minha atenção: o Edmun do Val 2009 (Alvarinho) e o Puro Talha 2015, da Adega José de Sousa. Como quem não quer a coisa, perguntei à funcionária se o Alvarinho de 2009 estaria em condições. Resposta: "Está sim, senhor." E acabou a conversa. Quanto ao vinho de talha, a senhora só sabia dizer que o mesmo tinha sido apresentado há uns meses numa feira de vinho. E fim de conversa.
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Se estivesse numa grande superfície, ainda era como o outro. Mas numa garrafeira especializada exige-se mais. Exige-se que os funcionários tenham capacidade de contar uma história por cada marca que vendem. Afinal de contas, os produtores, que são o suporte do seu negócio, confiam neles.
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Com as honrosas excepções da praxe, poucas são as garrafeiras que mostram dinamismo e criatividade na exposição e comunicação das marcas aos clientes. Limitam-se a encher prateleiras divididas por denominação de origem e esperar que alguém entre pela loja a pedir um conselho para uma garrafa destinada a um jantar disto ou daquilo em casa de um amigo.
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Num país tão pequeno, mas com perfis de vinhos tão diferentes, uma garrafeira bem gerida deveria criar eventos temáticos de todas as formas e feitios, captando a atenção dos consumidores que gostam de vinhos que não se vendem na grande distribuição.
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Se um tipo disser ao dono de uma garrafeira para fomentar a procura, desafiar os consumidores, apresentar uma oferta diferente das garrafeiras dos hipermercados ou - como nalgumas cadeias de livros e música - apresentar regularmente uma selecção de vinhos dos próprios funcionários, ele reconhecerá, por educação, que temos razão, mas encolherá os ombros e voltará ao "business as usual". Como dizia o outro, é a vida. Infelizmente."

E recuo a Maio de 2008 e à apologia da batota...

Trechos retirados de "Garrafeiras mais dinâmicas precisam-se"

Fugir da transacção pura e dura

Um exemplo a estudar e a merecer reflexão "Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon":

"Best Buy’s better-known Geek Squad deploys agents to help customers with repairs and installations. The advisors act as, in Best Buy’s language, personal chief technology officers, helping people make their homes smart or merely more functional.
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Now they’re in this conference room practicing how to sell by seeming not to. “Be a consultant, not a salesperson,” Bucknell says. “Use phrases like: ‘How would you like it if,’ ‘Do you think it would help if you could,’ ‘Have you ever thought about.’ ” They’re supposed to establish long-term relationships with their customers rather than chase one-time transactions. They won’t need to anxiously track weekly metrics and, unlike the Geek Squad and blue shirts working in stores, they’ll be paid an annual salary instead of an hourly wage. Their house calls are free and can last as long as 90 minutes."

 Se não se pode ter o preço mais baixo há que fugir da transacção pura e dura.

Números interessantes

Números interessantes:

"Inditex sube un peldaño en ecommerce. Las ventas a través de la Red copan ya el 12% de la facturación total del grupo gallego, el mayor distribuidor de moda del mundo por cifra de negocio.
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En concreto, Inditex facturó 2.534 millones de euros a través de la Red en el último ejercicio fiscal, un 41% más que en el año anterior"

Trechos retirados de "El ecommerce gana peso para Inditex y alcanza el 12% de las ventas del grupo"

"Ecommerce in France grew 14 percent last year. The online business-to-consumer turnover was worth just under 82 billion euros and is expected to rise even further in the coming year. The French ecommerce turnover is forecast to be worth 93 billion euros at the end of this year."

Trechos retirados de "Ecommerce in France was worth €81.7 billion in 2017"

Para reflexão

Relacionar "This Is How a Brick-and-Mortar Store Can Thrive in the Age of Amazon" com "Britain’s Online Shopping Boom Is a Bust for the High Street".

Quando o exterior muda mais rapidamente que uma organização, não demora muito a sentir-se um desfasamento. O mais natural, para quem tem o locus de controlo no exterior, é procurar um culpado e um papá para evitar a mudança interna que se impõe. O clássico "A vítima, o vilão e o salvador".

"And that experience will need to be fundamentally human"

"today’s most successful brands treat their customers as users, not buyers. They make life easier. They build relationships with their customers. They inspire loyalty and advocacy, not just one-time sales.
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These companies craft their brand experience as a designer would, thinking about every touchpoint — before, during, and after the purchase — from the user’s point of view.
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Because they view the shopping experience from your perspective, they’re able to deliver an optimal mix of products, services, and support for each channel.
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Consumers want in-person experiences — in fact, online retailers that open brick-and-mortar locations report five- to eight-fold increase in sales. Brands that use physical space to its full advantage understand how to pamper their customers with personal service that inspires loyalty and appeals to shoppers’ emotions.
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Mindsets are difficult to change, but a shift is both necessary and urgent in the case of retail. Our expectations as consumers will continue to rise, and businesses will need to deliver at every turn. It won’t be enough to adopt flashy new technologies or invest in buzzy activations. Retailers will need to understand how every touchpoint with their brand contributes to a holistic experience. And that experience will need to be fundamentally human."

Trechos retirados de "From Muji to Ikea: Why the best retailers think like UX designers"

A evolução do papel da loja física

O amigo Rui Moreira fez-me chegar este artigo "La jefa de venta ‘online’ de Mango: “En las tiendas han de pasar cosas, no pueden seguir igual otros 100 años”" de onde sublinho:

"P. Según un estudio, las mujeres prefieren la tienda física por probar la prenda y apreciar su calidad.
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R. No lo he leído, pero en Europa lo veo difícil, quizá en España... La tendencia dice lo contrario. La discusión hoy en día es cuánto, qué porcentaje de la venta de moda será online. Algunos apuestan por un 30%, otros por un 50%...
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P. Ahora mismo en España estamos en un 4-5%. Usted, ¿qué prevé?
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R. Dependerá de cómo asignemos la venta. La venta, ¿qué es? ¿La transacción? Si al final se paga todo con móvil, ¿toda la venta será online? Pero te aseguro que ese 5% no se va a quedar ahí. Yo calculo que España llegará en breve al 20-30%, y los más maduros, 50%.
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P. ¿Y la tienda?
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R. Va a seguir existiendo, claro que sí. Otra cosa es que la función de la tienda a lo mejor ha de ser diferente. Ahí estamos todos trabajando. En qué te puedo ofrecer para que salgas de la comodidad de tu casa y vengas a nuestras tiendas. Probablemente irá por el entorno de lo social, de lo sensorial... Han de suceder cosas. No podemos pretender que las tiendas vuelvan a estar 100 años más igual. Apple, por ejemplo, está haciendo cosas en ese sentido. En sus tiendas pasan cosas y no están relacionadas con la transacción pura y dura."

Difícil para muita gente abandonar a postura tradicional: eu é que sei o que é que os clientes querem.

Como não recordar a Papelaria Fernandes.

Testar rapidamente

"But today’s pop-up is hardly about smashing annual revenue numbers. Much as a Silicon Valley start-up might release a prototype or beta version to study user feedback, many retailers are treating their pop-up stores as a way to test, learn and iterate on new ideas.
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To some, it’s about testing a hypothesis or validating a new concept. To others, it’s about evaluating new markets, studying consumer behaviour or collecting actionable data to inform marketing strategy, R&D and business decisions. But for most, it’s still about building brand recognition, engaging new and loyal customers, and igniting social media and PR buzz."

Trecho retirado de "The Pop-Up Has Grown Up"

As quatro estratégias-base para o retalho (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

“2. Lead on Experiential: Offer Enhanced Customer ExperienceRetailers in the Experiential quadrant offer a physical customer experience that provides more pleasure, more excitement, and more fun than other retailers can provide.
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Here, the customer journey is more experiential, and is seen as a lifestyle choice, not a chore. This is a high-touch, social experience.
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excitement and discovery in-store.
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Other retailers augment the customer experience in-store by becoming community centers and hosting events such as book readings, celebrity talks, and community get-togethers. Lifestyle brands often offer aerobic classes, rock climbing walls, and basketball courts. Pop-up stores within stores offer excitement, “newness,” and innovation.
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3. Lead on Low Price: Offer Operational Excellence, Lowest-Cost EfficienciesRetailers in the Low Price quadrant provide reliable products or services at the lowest prices, and therefore offer customers the best savings. Retailers who can consistently offer the lowest prices have developed operating models that can efficiently manage inventory, keep overhead costs down, eliminate unnecessary intermediary steps, and reduce transaction costs at every step.
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are companies that look for creative ways to minimize overhead costs and to eliminate unnecessary transaction costs. They also offer reliability and efficiency, excellent customer service, and strong customer-focused policies for returns. These retailers build their entire business models around these goals.
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4. Lead on Frictionless: Offer Comprehensive Customer Understanding and Total ConvenienceRetailers in the Frictionless quadrant prioritize providing a frictionless customer experience that eliminates all pain points and offers the customer the easiest and most convenient way to shop. The key deliverable here is a simple, seamless integration of the shopping experience across all touchpoints. This requires the collection, capture, and analysis of all available customer data. Constantly analyzing the data allows for customization and personalization.
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In order to succeed here, retailers must identify the current pain points in the shopping experience.”

E para terminar esta introdução:

“A company’s choice in strategy will depend upon that retailers’ inherent strengths and the culture of the organization, and ultimately will set priorities for future allocation of resources. Customers are attracted to different retailers depending upon their own needs, so the choice of strategy will inevitably attract specific customer segments—and, by extension, inevitably turn away others.”

Excerto de: Barbara E. Kahn. “The Shopping Revolution”

As quatro estratégias-base para o retalho (parte II)

Parte I.

"“1. Lead on Brand: Offer Branded Product SuperiorityRetailers in the Product Brand quadrant offer branded products that provide more differentiation, more value, more pleasure, and ultimately more confidence to a particular customer segment, as compared to other products on the market. Here I am specifically referring to the value that comes from branded product. It is the product’s brand equity that brings the customer into the store.
There are several ways retailers can leverage the value offered through products that have strong brand equity. First, there are multibrand retailers who carry multiple lines of strong branded products that “pull” the customer into the store.
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Other retailers in this quadrant will include high-quality brands that are sold directly to the end user. These are known as vertical brands and the product brand name is the same as the retailer’s brand name. Examples include luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Hermès, specialty retailers such as Lululemon or Zara, or the newer digitally native vertical brands such as Warby Parker or Glossier.
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In all of these cases, these brands have developed deep emotional connections with consumers and a strong narrative; their customers frequently become brand advocates. In the luxury markets, these brands have heritage, exclusivity, and prestige. For the nonluxury brands, they have strong identity and values that resonate with their devotees.
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Retailers in this quadrant also excel in design and style. ... Finally, leaders in this quadrant may also compete on state-of-the art technology. All in all, the leaders here succeed in developing an innovative culture where new ideas are embraced and commercialized quickly.”

Excerto de: Barbara E. Kahn. “The Shopping Revolution”

As quatro estratégias-base para o retalho

“Most classic frameworks of retail strategy are missing a critical dimension: the customer perspective. It is a significant and startling omission.
After all, when customers go shopping, they want to buy something they value (product benefits) from someone they trust (customer experience). Whether customers buy these products offline or online is a function of where they are, who they are with, and how much time they have.
A related insight that many retail strategies seemingly forget is that today, more than ever, customers have lots of choices and they gravitate to the retailers who offer them the best value on the dimensions they care about. In other words, retailers have to provide some kind of superior competitive advantage beyond what is being offered by the competition. This superior value can be delivered either by providing more pleasure and benefits for their customers or by removing pain and inconvenience from the retail experience.”
...

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“The “Retail Proposition,” the horizontal axis of this 2 × 2 matrix, represents the first principle: Customers want to “buy something they want (product benefits) from someone they trust (customer experience). “Superior Competitive Advantage,” the vertical axis, represents the second principle: In order to win customers, retailers must offer products and experiences that are better than the competition’s.
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This matrix spells out four basic strategies. The first two strategies, illustrated on the top row, differentiate themselves by offering more pleasure and more benefits; the second two strategies, illustrated on the bottom row, differentiate by eliminating pain points.”

Excerto de: Barbara E. Kahn. “The Shopping Revolution”. iBooks.

Mongo é sintonizar e responder rapidamente (Parte II)

Parte I.

“One of the keys to both Amazon’s success now and Walmart’s success in disrupting retail in the mid-nineties is a fierce understanding of what customers want. Winning retailers have to be completely customer-centric. This means they need to be mindful not only of what products customers want, but also of the importance of convenience—of removing the pain of shopping.” (1)

Saber claramente quem é o cliente-alvo e ter uma oferta desenhada para ele. Parece simples:

"Five Below sells items for $5 and under. Adults may be unfamiliar with the brand but the youth-focused discount chain has emerged as one of the brightest stars in the retail sector over the past 12 months.
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Unlike traditional discounters Dollar General or Dollar Tree, which sell cheap staples such as bread, soda and cleaning products to budget conscious households, Five Below chases pocket-money. It peddles $3 slime and $5 giant unicorn pool floaties to teens and pre-teens. This has turned out to be something of a retail sweet spot. A bet on fidget spinners helped Five Below deliver a 28 per cent rise in sales during its most recent fiscal year. Same-store sales were up 6.5 per cent — a feat few were able to match in the bombed out US retail sector.
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Five Below’s merchandise mix, one-third of which are in-house exclusives, helps protect its sales from Amazon." (2)

O complicado é o sacrificio de ter de considerar a blasfémia de chamar a uma parte do mercado não-clientes. Pois, o teste do algodão na estratégia ... todos querem ser simultaneamente ricos e com saúde.

(1) Excerto de: Barbara E. Kahn. “The Shopping Revolution”
(2) Trecho retirado de "Five Below/US retail: slime of the times"

Para reflexão

"Amazon continues to take a larger cut of that share for itself, accounting for almost 42% of U.S. online sales last year
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Still, four “bricks-and-clicks” retailers reported stronger online sales increases than Amazon last year, with Walmart at 61.5% growth (though much of it via acquisition), Lowe’s at 34.3%, Best Buy at 27.2% and Target with 24%,
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Meanwhile, among Internet Retailer’s Top 500 online retailers, sales for retailers listed No. 201 through No. 500 collectively increased about 25% last year, suggesting sales growth is well within reach for smaller e-commerce sites even as Amazon continues to dominate"

Trechos retirados de "Amazon still dominates e-commerce, but others have room to grow"

Não me admiro!

Quando existiam dinossauros no planeta Terra eu associava a marca Marks & Spencer a tudo menos low-cost. Trabalhava num fornecedor português da marca e associava-a a exigência na qualidade.

Hoje, os fornecedores portugueses da marca queixam-se da exigência paranóica no preço (custo).

Tendo em conta esta evolução:

E a importância do alinhamento entre estratégia, posicionamento da marca e operações, não me admiro com esta evolução "Marks & Spencer confirms expanded store closure programme".

Estratégia a sério implica sacrifício, implica trade-off, não é compatível com ser rico e ter saúde em simultâneo:

"there are no real surprises in Mr Rowe’s new strategy, which includes focusing on the quality and fit of clothing, “sharper” ranges, lower prices but less promotional activity." (fonte)

Um mundo polarizado (parte VII)

Um mundo polarizado (parte VI).

Na parte II coloquei estes gráficos:

Que corroboram bem "Laureano Turienzo: “El ‘Apocalipsis Retail’ es un mito desde el punto de vista numérico”":

"Cuando se habla del Apocalipsis Retail como una pandemia generalista, no es real. La venta por catálogo ofrecida por retailers como Sears también fue un gran destructor de tiendas físicas. Es absurdo porque en el escenario omnicanal no tiene sentido carecer de tiendas físicas. Alibaba invertirá más de quince mil millones de dólares en empresas de retail físico en los próximos años. Hace poco, el grupo abrió la primera librería en Shanghái sin personal humano. Hay ciertos modelos con retail físico cuyo momento actual no es bueno, sino excelente: los actores premium, el low cost y ciertos retailers de valor medio."

Saliento:

"P.: El Cortes Inglés y Macy’s están subalquilando espacios a terceros en sus centros. ¿Es una buena solución ante el exceso de metros?
R.: Macy’s está convirtiendo todas las plantas bajas de sus centros en puro concepto off-price. Aunque se le conocía siempre como lo más exquisito de la atención al cliente, y ahora los descuentos le están yendo bien, este es el peor negocio que puedes hacer. Porque estás perdiendo el ADN. Yo preferiría alquilar parte de mi terreno a alguien que tiene buena reputación de marcas antes que poner un rastrillo en el seno de mis establecimientos. Los grupos de grandes almacenes también tendrían que empezar a pensar en otros negocios, como pueden ser clínicas de belleza, médicas, escuelas de negocios… ese tipo de formatos que jamás hubiesen entrado en un gran almacén a lo mejor tienen que entrar."

e:

"P.: ¿Qué innovación tecnológica cree que le urge más implantar a un retailer físico de moda?
R.: A largo plazo, visualizo establecimientos con un 50% de retail y un 50% de comunidad, con el sentimiento de plaza del pueblo de una tienda Apple. Lo más efectivo es la realidad aumentada. "

Para reflexão

Depois a culpa é do digital...

• Millennials. Portugueses são os que mais seguem lojas nas redes sociais
• Retalhistas divorciados dos consumidores
• The Future of Retail is the End of Wholesale
• Comunicação. O marketing tradicional “falhou completamente”
• Marcas cortam nos intermediários

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

Parte I e parte II.

Ainda acerca do by-pass ao mundo das Amazons, Zalandos, Continentes, Pingo Doces, FNACs et al.

"many small retailers carry inventories that compensate with quirk or quality for what they lack in breadth. Magpie-like secondhand and vintage stores are especially popular. So are businesses that carry local specialty and handmade items. Longtime retailers reflect the specific--and sometimes peculiar--tastes of their communities..These companies excel in product selection.
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"We are proud of the weird," [Moi ici: Como isto está em sintonia com a mensagem deste blogue!!!]
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"His vision has always been to rescue records from people who did not want them and turn them over to people who did," Grauzer says.
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Weber's strategy was more passionate than practical. "He just kept buying records regardless of whether they sold or not," [Moi ici: Isto é um ponto importante, muito importante. Abaixo na tabela tem tudo a ver com o criar uma network]
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"I guess it doesn't sound like a great business model," says Grauzer. "But it has worked."
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Kneib will custom-make soap in any design from almost any natural ingredient. "They want something that smells like lime or ginger or they want a certain color because it's for a wedding," she says. "We produce what they want."
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Because customers find many products unfamiliar, Papa sends them home with samples before they buy."

Trechos retirados de "These Companies' Inventories Pick Up Where Amazon's Leaves Off"

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.

Como se compete num mundo de Amazons e Zalandos et al?

A propósito disto e disto.

"As exportações portuguesas estão a crescer, e as da indústria transformadora também, mas as do setor-chave da fileira da moda, como o calçado e o vestuário, estão a cair 1,7% e 2,7%, respetivamente. [Moi ici: Interessante como as más notícias voam muito mais depressa que as boas. O tempo que as boas notícias demoraram a chegar ao mainstream... recordar André Macedo em 2008]
...
Mas Fortunato Frederico, o maior industrial de calçado do país, alerta que o setor “precisa de encontrar um novo paradigma” porque o do passado “já não serve”.
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Foi isso que Fortunato Frederico destacou, na presença do primeiro-ministro, quando, na semana passada, inaugurou a sua mais recente aposta: a Overcube, a nova plataforma de vendas online da Kyaia, para as marcas do grupo e não só. Um investimento de um milhão de euros, que permitiu a contratação de 20 quadros “altamente qualificados”, número que deverá ser reforçado até ao final do ano, diz o empresário, com mais oito ou dez pessoas.   “O ano arrancou muito frouxo. Antigamente havia crises conjunturais que conseguíamos identificar, agora sente-se que há uma mudança estrutural, mas não conseguimos apontar-lhe verdadeiramente uma causa. Só sabemos que os negócios não fluem como fluíam. [Moi ici: Excelente descrição dos sintomas que sinto] É uma loja que fecha aqui, outra ali, mas não é, sequer, exclusivo de Portugal”,[Moi ici: A evolução do retalho e a ascensão do online]
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“Desde 2010 que a Foreva deu sempre prejuízo. Se fosse um empresário que não tivesse qualquer outro negócio, já tinha falido”, argumenta. E lembra a mudança de hábitos dos consumidores: “É a tal mudança estrutural, as pessoas valorizam muito mais ir passar férias ou almoçar e jantar fora do que comprar sapatos.
[Moi ici: Recordar, "Even the Chinese are tilting a bit from having to being"]E como toda a gente usa é desportivos, esse é o negócio das marcas internacionais, que os trazem da China.” Solução? “Temos de repensar se vamos procurar novos mercados ou se vamos reforçar as equipas naqueles em que estamos”"(fonte)

Nisto tudo há uma coisa em que fico a pensar:

Perante a erosão do modelo da figura I, estão a querer evoluir para o modelo da figura II. Por causa disso vão gastar um milhão para competir no campeonato das Amazons e Zalandos et al. Aposto que o dinheiro vem de fundos comunitários e, por isso, vai custar menos a gastar. E, por isso, não vão investir em reflectir sobre o desafio que têm em cima da mesa e como podem competir sem ser no mesmo campo das Amazons e Zalandos et al.

Será que gastar 1 milhão é suficiente para fazer o fogo de artifício que deixe o site da Overcube na memória?

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.

O que é que o sector tem feito nos últimos anos? Promover a marca Portugal! Como é que isso pode ser usado?

Continua.

"Experiences won’t just sell products. Experiences will be the products"

Esta semana durante uma conversa percebi que para algumas pessoas que lidam como fornecedores do retalho ainda não é claro o conceito de economia das experiências.

Entretanto, encontrei mais um texto interessante sobre o tema, "Why Retail Is Getting 'Experience' Wrong":

"Customer experience is not only the new frontier of competitive differentiation but also, as I’ve often asserted, the future of how physical retailers will generate revenue. Experiences won’t just sell products. Experiences will be the products. Yet, for all the violent agreement about their value, the customer experiences we most often have when we shop are mediocre and forgettable at best.
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Most retailers assume customer experience is primarily an aesthetic concept and more about how stores and websites look and feel.
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Other retailers assume that customer experience simply means better, friendlier or more personalised service.
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True customer experience design means deconstructing the entire customer journey into its smallest component parts and then reengineering each component to look, feel and most importantly, operate differently than before and distinctly from competitors. It means digging below the surface within each moment to understand the underlying customer need and designing the exact combination of people, place, product and process to deliver delight in that micro-moment."[Moi ici: O artigo lista 5 características da construção de experiências de loja]

Recordar:

• Um mundo polarizado (parte VI)
• Um mundo polarizado (parte V)
• Um mundo polarizado (parte IV)
• Um mundo polarizado (parte II)
• Acerca da evolução do retalho 
• "What would we do differently if we charged admission?"