Compras em segunda-mão

Tantas coisas ...

Há tempos numa empresa prestadora de serviços à indústria perguntavam-me como se explicaria o abaixamento na actividade das PMEs, as suas clientes.

Falámos da economia das experiências, falámos do efeito Norte de África, Turquia e Leste da Europa, ... nunca me passou pela cabeça este factor:

• Thanks, Marie Kondo! The resale market is becoming bigger than fast fashion

"The 2019 thredUp Resale Report, in conjunction with GlobalData, analyzed the trends and drivers pushing this revitalized sector. Researchers found that 56 million women bought secondhand products in 2018, an increase of 12 million new secondhand shoppers from the year prior. And they’re not done yet: 51% of resale shoppers plan to spend even more on thrift in the next five years.
...
ThredUp reports that increased growth can be credited to millennials and gen-Z, who adopt secondhand items 2.5 times faster than the average consumer. This is partially because they prefer to wear the latest styles, meaning last season’s fads get quickly deposited through the thrift cycle. According to the report, it’s why secondhand, rental, and subscription are the top three fastest-growing retail categories.
...

• As consumers partake in the resale market, they now own 28 fewer items, on average, than two years ago.

• The resale market grew 21 times faster than apparel retail over the past three years.

• 72% of secondhand shoppers shifted spend away from traditional retailers to buy more used items.

• The secondhand clothing industry is expected to grow 1.5 times the size of fast fashion within 10 years.

• One-third of consumers polled by ThredUp said they would spend more with their favorite retailers if those retailers also sold secondhand apparel."

• Fast-fashion retailers like Zara and H&M have a new threat: the $24 billion used clothes market

"selling projects rather than products" (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

Como são as coisas... não há coincidências, todos os acasos são significativos.

Ontem à tarde, estive numa reunião de exploração estratégica numa empresa num sector tradicional da economia.

Empresa desenvolveu um produto a pedido dum cliente-fabricante. Entretanto, esse cliente chegou junto da marca e resolveu declinar o convite para produzir.

Marca, com produto na gama média-alta, resolveu avançar com a produção em Itália. Empresa resolveu fazer algo que nunca tinha feito antes, entrou em contacto com a marca, apresentou-se e ofereceu-se para continuar a fornecer a produção.

A internet ajudou-os a resolver o problema da distância (engraçado que antes da reunião ouvi este texto, "The Problem For Small-Town Banks: Technology Has Redefined Community" e, durante a reunião recordei "O fim da barreira geográfica")

Ou seja, a empresa está a considerar entrar no mundo da venda de projectos, em vez da venda de produtos, ou de soluções.

Também ando a pensar na relação da venda de projectos com o último nível desta cadeia:

Ainda a batota

"The problem, experts say, is that a lot of companies don’t set clear objectives for the experiences they create. “You have to figure out what people need,” said Sarah Hall, co-founder and partner of experiential marketing firm Harley & Company. “Then you have to decide if you want to create a deep emotional connection or push them towards a transaction.”
.
Many brands run into trouble by mimicking competitors’ strategies instead of figuring out which experiences make the most sense — and sales — for them. A café is only worth operating if its regulars are also purchasing margin-driving products. A successful restaurant won’t save a struggling department store chain unless diners hit the shoe floor afterwards. An in-store panel discussion will only create goodwill if the mission of the panel meets the mission of the brand.
.
“It's about questioning and redesigning every aspect of how the store works and how it sells what it sells,” said retail industry futurist Doug Stephens. “It's an intensive process that begins by breaking down the entire customer journey into its smallest micro-moments and then, within each of those moments, designing experiences that are surprising, unique, personalised, engaging and, most importantly, repeatable.”[Moi ici: E recuar a 2008 e ao primeiro e ao segundo texto sobre a batota]
.
Remaking the in-store experience often means a significant (and expensive) overhaul.
...
Experts underscore that good experiences are only worthwhile if they are accompanied by good products."

Trechos retirados de "The Pitfalls of Investing in Experiential Retail"

Ainda mais temas para o futuro do retalho e da produção

Parte I e parte II.

"The decline of Payless can be attributed partly to broader trends in the market. The brand’s stores were largely located in malls, and there has a general decrease in the amount of foot traffic at large shopping centers over the last few years.
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But there’s also an important shift happening in consumer behavior. People are moving away from poorly made, inexpensive fashion items. For decades fast fashion, epitomized by brands like H&M and Forever21, churned out cheap, fashionable clothes that customers could wear a few times before chucking out. But as I’ve reported before, many fast fashion brands are now on the decline.
.
Payless was the shoe equivalent of fast fashion. The brand was not known for the quality or durability of its product, but competed largely on price. As a result, customers could buy whatever boot or heel was in season, and expect to throw it away months later. Consumers appear to be tired of this approach, partly because it is so environmentally unsound. While Payless has spiraled downwards, a flock of brands making high-quality, eco-friendly, durable shoes like M.Gemi, Allbirds, and Rothy’s have been thriving."

O impacte desta evolução no retalho, nas marcas, na produção, nos materiais e design - pense nisso!

Trecho retirado de "What the Payless bloodbath says about the death of fast fashion"

Mais temas para o futuro do retalho

Parte I.

"Payless ShoeSource this week filed for Chapter 11 protection and said it would be closing all 2,500 store locations across North America as well as its e-commerce operations. With over 16,000 jobs lost, it is one of the largest retailer liquidation to date, according to the Wall Street Journal.
...
 we need see these closings as a sign of change and heed the lessons wisely, because what "killed" all three [Moi ici: Payless, Toys R Us e a Sears] is not just Amazon or the internet, but a new business paradigm."

Ontem vi este video sobre o Revolut e N26 e é o mesmo fenómeno: "a new business paradigm". Ter especial atenção às palavras do economista Vinay Pranjivam e os trechos que se seguem, retirados de “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain” de Thales S. Teixeira.

Ontem de manhã li estes trechos:

"The Concept of Decoupling
...
Wondering precisely how disruptors were unsettling small parts of incumbents’ businesses, I turned to a basic framework that my colleagues and I teach our students: the customer’s value chain, or CVC. A CVC is composed of the discrete steps a typical customer follows in order to select, buy, and consume a product or service. CVCs vary according to the specifics of a business, industry, or product.

Traditionally, consumers completed all these activities with the same company in a joint or coupled manner.
...
What I realized, as I thought about these examples, was that disruptors had posed a threat by breaking the links between some of the stages of the CVC and then “stealing” one or a few stages for themselves to fulfill.”

Trechos iniciais retirados de "Valuable Lessons Learned From the Closing of Payless Shoes"

Quem aproveitará?

Perspectiva interessante, o online pode estar a dar cabo das vendas nos centros comerciais norte-americanos e a promover o seu encerramento em larga escala (a densidade de centros comerciais norte-americanos é muito superior à na Europa)

Por outro lado, a economia das experiências está a promover o renascimento das lojas de rua:

"Algunos analistas de mercado lo denominan como «el renacer del comercio tradicional en los Estados Unidos». Con esta definición explican la sorprendente revitalización que está experimentando en los últimos años el comercio minorista en los Estados Unidos. Según un estudio de Credit Suisse, entre el 20 y el 25 por ciento de los grandes centros comerciales de EE. UU. cerrará en los próximos años, lo que supondrá la desaparición de entre 240 y 300 de los cerca de 1.200 existentes. Por el contario, según el banco suizo de inversión, EE. UU. experimentará un nuevo resurgir de las tiendas de proximidad."

O que faz pensar é o remate final do artigo:

"Esta renovada eclosión del retails a pie de calle supone una gran oportunidad para el sector del calzado, especialmente para aquel, como el español, que destaca por su excelente relación calidad-precio y por su diseño. Las pequeñas zapaterías que ahora están apareciendo en cada rincón de las ciudades estadounidenses necesitan diferenciarse de las grandes plataformas de distribución de zapatos mediante la selección de un muestrario original, diferente y con valor añadido. En este sentido, el calzado nacional puede ser un gran aliado de estas zapaterías de proximidad." 

Em que "prateleiras", em que feiras, em que espaços, estas pequenas sapatarias de rua vão abastecer-se com o seu portefolio de sapatos?

Quem aproveitará para trabalhar com elas na co-criação da sua oferta? E estas pequenas sapatarias frequentarão as mesmas feiras que as cadeias de sapatarias?

Trechos retirados de "El renacer del comercio minorista en los Estados Unidos, una oportunidad para el calzado español", artigo enviado pelo amigo Rui Moreira.

"the name of the game"

Há-de chegar um ponto de viragem, (será que já chegou?), em que o dinheiro gasto na economia das experiências vai provocar mossa na economia dos bens, ainda que o dinheiro não fique parado.

Um padrão, "Tours4Fun Launches Handcrafted Vacations, a Custom Travel Company for Specialty Groups and Independent Luxury Travelers" [Moi ici: Gosto do nome Handcrafted Vacations]:

""Personalization is the name of the game when it comes to the travel customer experience."
...
"We've experienced a tremendous increase in demand for customized vacations in recent years," said Kevin Du, Trinity Travel Group CEO. "With Handcrafted Vacations, we're well-positioned to continue meeting our client's ever-growing desire for unique and innovative travel experiences and itineraries. In addition, our new division enables us to reach more markets while expanding our personalized travel services to a broader range of audiences, ages and special interests."

E, "X-treme Luxury Travel for Billionaires: The Rise of Luxpeditions":

"Experiences are the new possessions. Transformational travel is the new authenticity. Expeditions are the new vacations.
...
"A Luxpedition is for those who want their Bear Grylls experience during the daytime but, at night, want to blast away the dust, dirt and sweat with a power shower and slip beneath crisp, clean sheets." [Moi ici: Recordar a oferta durante o dia e durante a noite no postal de Dezembro de 2010 que se segue]

• Dezembro de 2010 - Mais uma sugestão de modelo de negócio
• Maio de 2014 - O essencial é co-criar à medida de cada um, a sua experiência
• Maio de 2015 - "uma oportunidade tremenda de se diferenciar" (parte IV)
• Setembro de 2015 - O Douro na rota das experiências

Também por isto sou um contrarian (parte II)

Parte I.

A propósito de "Robôs destroem 440 mil empregos na indústria e comércio até 2030" e do pormenor:

"Indústria, comércio, transportes, funções administrativas e de públicas e agricultura. Estão entre os sectores onde o impacto da automação na destruição de emprego mais se fará sentir."

Sorrio e vou buscar "Report: Retailers have zero clue what shoppers really want":

"Hey, retail executive. It’s very nice of you to suggest I speak with your robot, but no, I’ll pass. It looks like there is a fully functioning human standing in the corner of your shop. Would it really be too much trouble to speak with him instead?
...
I’m not the only one who feels like this. In a report that comes as a surprise to absolutely no one but overeager retail execs, 95% of consumers don’t want to talk to a robot when they are shopping, neither online nor in brick-and-mortar stores. And 86% have no desire for other shiny new technologies either, like artificial intelligence and virtual reality. I, for one, don’t want to pop into a store to quickly pick up that alpaca sweater I saw online, only to have some sort of weird headset shoved in my face.
...
The vast majority of retail executives believe that AI and VR will increase foot traffic and sales, but 48% of shoppers say these technologies will have zero impact on whether they visit a store, and only 14% say they will make a purchase because of these technologies. This also applies to online technologies like chatbots. Seventy-nine percent of retail execs believe that chatbots are meeting shopper’s needs by providing on-demand customer service, while 66% of consumers disagree, with many respondents noting that chatbots are, in fact, more damaging to the shopping experience than helpful."

 Até parece que a batota da interacção entre humanos passa por robôs?!?!?!?!

E recordo a economia das experiências, "The experience economy is booming, but it must benefit everyone":

"The only companies that will exist in 10 years’ time are those that create and nurture human experiences. This learning and growth will come from maximizing opportunities, including the reinvention of retail spaces, new models of engagement, and an understanding of experiences as perhaps the most important form of marketing."

Criar experiências

Fala-se muito sobre a necessidade das lojas físicas criarem experiências.

Poucas vezes li um texto tão prático como "What a Toys “R” Us Comeback Could Look Like":

"retailers today face two choices: offer consumers time well saved or time well spent. Toys “R” Us failed at the former strategy in its first incarnation. In coming out of bankruptcy, the company must pursue a time-well-spent strategy, offering places where both parents and their kids enjoy great experiences.
...
For the reborn company to have a chance, it must turn 180 degrees and embrace a parent- and kid-centric strategy. It must become a stager of toy-playing experiences — enticing consumers into its new places by offering experiences that both parents and kids value. (What child wants to go to a warehouse? What child doesn’t want to play?) It should strive to maximize the time consumers spend in its places, because the longer they are there, the more they will buy. This is the essence of a time-well-spent strategy.
.
Imagine venues designed not around stocking toy packages with never-ending red-tag sales but around toys themselves with never-ending play experiences — one with spots where children can play with LEGO sets and participate in gaming tournaments. Imagine a testing lab where vendors pay to have children play with their latest and greatest toys. Imagine a studio where kids can design and create toys. Imagine becoming THE place for children’s birthday parties. (Surely Toys “R” Us could stage a far better experience than, say, Chuck E. Cheese’s, an experience that actually involves parents rather than shunting them off to the side.) In such venues, the warehouse would be in the back, out of consumers’ sight.
.
The absolute best way of knowing you’re providing time well spent is to charge admission for gaining entry to at least parts of the store"

E a sua loja, como vai passar a cobrar admissão?

Desenhar experiências

Sem muito esforço... aliás sem nenhum esforço, três artigos sobre um tema actual: a economia das experiências e o duelo online/offline no retalho

• Disney is Pouring Billions Into its Parks--and That's Worth Studying for Every Entrepreneur

"From the moment you arrive, your Disney World experience is carefully thought out. The most minute details are covered from the design of the rides to ease of transportation.
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By mapping out any possible scenario a guest may find themselves in, Disney World eliminates the need to overanalyze. This gives way for people to truly soak in and enjoy their time on the property.
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When is the last time you analyzed what your customers or clients experience when working with your company? Most likely, the answer is "not often."
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Evaluate the experience your customers have with your brand. The more you can create a memorable and enjoyable experience the likelihood of them returning as customers, again and again, goes through the roof."

• In the era of online shopping, the retail store is immersive theater

"“What I see in this store, and I hope you do too, is the most experiential and immersive expression of the Nike brand,”
...
“This is basically all about inspiration, and this will be version 1.0, call it, of what we’re doing through the personalization and customization experience,”"

• Experiential new ways of buying fine wine and spirits

"In the spirits room, whiskies from Scotland, Ireland, England and Japan are grouped by style rather than region – “fresh fruit”, “oak spice”, “smoke” – to encourage experimentation.
...
 “You can buy so many things these days ust sitting at home on the couch, so we differentiate ourselves from online by focusing on the experience,”"

Evolução do retalho

Interessantes estes números:

"The British high street suffered 2,692 store closures in the first half of 2018, according to analysis of the UK's top 500 towns compiled by the Local Data Company for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In contrast, there were 1,569 store openings, a decline of a third year-on-year.
.
The findings equate to an overall net loss of 1,123 stores disappearing from the UK’s streets during this period. (In the same period a year prior, there were 2,564 store closures to 2,342 openings — an overall net loss of 222 stores.) “Openings simply aren’t replacing closures at a fast enough rate,” said Lisa Hooker, consumer markets leader at PwC.
.
10 percent of store closures were fashion retailers, making it the largest business category affected. According to PwC, 269 fashion stores closed in the first half of 2018, while 165 opened.
...
“The British high street is in urgent need of new ways of thinking and new forms of retail,”"

E o tema da economia das experiências:

"clothing retailers’ troubles reflected a shift in consumer preference for online shopping and at-home leisure, as well as a change in culture towards enjoying experiences rather than buying products. While the shift has resulted in an increase of “experiential” store openings such as beauty salons, it hasn’t been enough to offset the closures of more traditional businesses." 

Trechos retirados de "UK Retail Apocalypse Deepens"

BTW, pode ser coincidência, mas:

"As vendas anuais no retalho alemão baixaram de forma acentuada em setembro, ao contrário das expetativas dos economistas, que previam um crescimento. Os gastos dos consumidores alemães diminuíram cerca de 2,6% em setembro, quando comparado com igual período do ano anterior, revela o Gabinete Federal de Estatística (Destatis) alemão, sendo que se previa um crescimento de 0,9%. Esta foi a maior quebra desde junho de 2013.
...
Os sinais de quebra foram particularmente claros no sector têxtil e vestuário, onde foi registada uma descida de 9,6% nas vendas, enquanto na alimentação, bebidas e tabaco estas desceram 3%."

Fazedores de experiências - a alquimia do futuro

Acho esta estória uma mina de oportunidades para os que tiverem olhos para ver. Diz-se que vamos a caminho de uma economia de experiências:

“When Doug Dietz set out to visit a local hospital that had recently installed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, he had little idea of what life was like inside a children’s ward. [Moi ici: BTW, a sua empresa faz isto? Vê os produtos ou serviços a serem usados no contexto pelos seus utilizadores?] A soft-spoken midwesterner with a wry, endearing smile, Doug is a twenty-four-year veteran of General Electric (GE). He works as an industrial designer at GE Healthcare, where he is responsible for the overall machine enclosures, controls, displays, and patient transfer units.
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“I see this young family coming down the hallway, and I can tell as they get closer that the little girl is weeping. As they get even closer to me, I notice the father leans down and just goes, ‘Remember we talked about this, you can be brave,’” Doug recalled. As the MRI began to make a terrible noise, the little girl started to cry. Doug later learned that hospitals had routinely resorted to sedating young patients because they became too scared to lie still for long enough. As many as 80 percent of the patients had to undergo general anesthesia.
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After witnessing the anxiety and fear his life-saving machine had caused, Doug resolved to redesign the imaging experience. His boss at GE, who had visited Stanford’s d.school while working at Procter & Gamble, suggested that Doug fly to California for a weeklong workshop. Doug knew he couldn’t launch a big research and design (R&D) project to redesign an MRI machine from scratch. But at d.school, he learned a human-centered approach to redesigning the experience. Over the next five years, with a new team, Doug would elicit the views of staff from a local children’s museum, hospital employees, parents, and kids and create many prototypes that would allow his ideas to be seen, touched, and experienced. Testing and evaluation with young patients and interviews with their parents then revealed what worked and what didn’t, helping Doug to generate even more ideas in a continuous cycle.
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The result was the Adventure Series, through which young children were transported into an imaginary world where the scanning process was part of an adventure. Hospital wards included “Pirate Island,” “Jungle Adventure,” “Cozy Camp,” and “Coral City.” in one of them, children would climb into the scanner’s transfer unit, which had been painted like a canoe, and then lie down. The normally terrifying “BOOM-BOOM-BOOM” noise of the scanner became part of the adventure—it was the sound of an imaginary canoe taking off. “They tell children to hold still so that they don’t rock the boat, and if you really do hold still, the fish will start jumping over the top of you,” Dietz said. Children loved the experience so much that they begged their parents to let them do it again. Sedation rates went down by 80 percent, while parent satisfaction rose by an astounding 90 percent. A mother reported that her six-year-old daughter, who had just been scanned in the MRI “pirate ship,” came over, tugged on her skirt, and whispered, “Mommy, can we come back tomorrow?”"

Fiquei a pensar, com um pouco de contextualização, com algum investimento no cenário conseguiram aquele:

“Mommy, can we come back tomorrow?”

Em quantos outros sectores um "human-centered approach to redesigning the experience" pode fazer milagres?

Esta manhã, a caminho da camioneta para Bragança passei pela Confeitaria do Bolhão e juro, quase 12 anos depois, ainda me recordei desta cena e deste título: "I'm not an order taker. I'm an experience maker!"

Excerto de “Leap”. de Howard Yu.

"we travel to have experiences"

Simplesmente extraordinário, "Falconry and fire-swallowing: How Airbnb's "Experiences" are transforming the platform".

Ainda ontem escrevia num postal:

"O importante, para subir na escala de valor, é deixar de vender o que se produz e passar a focar no resultado que se obtém com o que se produz"

Entretanto, à tarde, a caminho de Bragança, encontrei o artigo acima:

"Ten years ago, Airbnb disrupted the hotel industry and changed how people travel. Now, it's selling what you do on vacation as much as where you sleep. There are thousands of "Experiences" around the world to book on Airbnb — everything from walking with wolves to aerial yoga and even, as CBS News' Jamie Yuccas found out, flying in a vintage airplane." 

Recordar:

• As experiências estão em todo o lado (Setembro de 2011) 
• Mais uma sugestão de modelo de negócio (Setembro de 2010)

"Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky launched the "Experiences" feature two years ago. He says it's now growing 10 times faster than the company's core home rental business.
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"Three out of four millennials, young people, said they'd rather buy an experience than a physical good. And so I think the experience economy is this huge wave," Chesky said. "We want the experience to be so good that you do them even if you live in the city."
...
"We don't travel to sleep in a house or a hotel, we travel to have experiences.""

Para reflexão

"Experiences, which offers users activities hosted by locals — like a photography workshop or a cooking class — is now doing a million and a half bookings on an annualized basis. It’s growing much faster than Homes did, according to Chesky, who shared the data point that three in four millennials said they’d rather buy an Experience than a physical good."

Imaginem quando os hospedeiros por cá começarem a oferecer mais do que o espaço e se concentrarem no pacote completo.

Trecho retirado de "The experience economy will be a ‘massive business,’ according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky"

Associar coisas a experiências

Acerca da economia das experiências recordar, por exemplo:

• Vai uma experiência? (Dezembro de 2011)
• Desenhar experiências (Abril de 2012)
• assistia do seu acampamento, amedrontado, acobardado, aos desafios arrogantes do gigante Golias e... (Abril de 2013)
• "experiences bring people more happiness than do possessions" (Outubro de 2014)
• A economia de experiências a crescer no Algarve (Agosto de 2015)
• Mongo, experiências, emoções, significados e tribos (Agosto de 2016)
• Serviços vs experiências (Julho de 2017)
• "Experiences won’t just sell products. Experiences will be the products" (Abril de 2018)

Mais um tijolo para esta construção, "Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things":

"Experiences become a part of our identity. We are not our possessions, but we are the accumulation of everything we’ve seen, the things we’ve done, and the places we’ve been. Buying an Apple Watch isn’t going to change who you are; taking a break from work to hike the Appalachian Trail from start to finish most certainly will.
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“Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” said Gilovich. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”
...
Anticipation matters. Gilovich also studied anticipation and found that anticipation of an experience causes excitement and enjoyment, while anticipation of obtaining a possession causes impatience.
...
she attributes the temporary happiness achieved by buying things to what she calls “puddles of pleasure.” In other words, that kind of happiness evaporates quickly and leaves us wanting more. Things may last longer than experiences, but the memories that linger are what matter most."

Para os fabricantes de coisas, talvez faça sentido associar coisas a experiências, como um souvenir. Até que ponto alguém nas PME está a trabalhar nisto?

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.
...
"We are proud of the weird," [Moi ici: Como isto está em sintonia com a mensagem deste blogue!!!]
...
"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.
.
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]
...
"I guess it doesn't sound like a great business model," says Grauzer. "But it has worked."
...
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."
...
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.
.
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.
.
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.
...
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.
.
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.
.
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]
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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?"

Pensar e gerir a "experiência do cliente"

Aplicável a tantas empresas em tantos sectores:

"IDEO's architects revealed that patients and family often became annoyed well before seeing a doctor because checking in was a nightmare and waiting rooms were uncomfortable. They also showed that Kaiser's doctors and medical assistants sat too far apart. IDEO's cognitive psychologists pointed out that people, especially the young, the old, and immigrants, visit doctors with a parent or friend, but that second person is often not allowed to stay with the patient, leaving the afflicted alienated and anxious. IDEO's sociologists explained that patients hated Kaiser's examination rooms because they often had to wait alone for up to 20 minutes half-naked, with nothing to do, surrounded by threatening needles. IDEO and Kaiser concluded that the patient experience can be awful even when people leave treated and cured.
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What to do? After just seven weeks with IDEO, Kaiser realized its long-range growth plan didn't require building lots of expensive new facilities. What it needed was to overhaul the patient experience. Kaiser learned from IDEO that seeking medical care is much like shopping -- it is a social experience shared with others. So it needed to offer more comfortable waiting rooms and a lobby with clear instructions on where to go; larger exam rooms, with space for three or more people and curtains for privacy, to make patients comfortable; and special corridors for medical staffers to meet and increase their efficiency. "IDEO showed us that we are designing human experiences, not buildings," says Adam D. Nemer, medical operations services manager at Kaiser. "Its recommendations do not require big capital expenditures."

Quem tem a responsabilidade de pensar e gerir a "experiência do cliente"?

O mais fácil é pensar que é tudo uma questão de tecnologia:

• Retailers Race Against Amazon to Automate Stores;
• This automated restaurant was supposed to be the future of dining. Until humanity struck back

Trecho inicial retirado de "The Power Of Design"