Parte V - A via da experiência ou a via do volume?

Parte I, parte II, parte III e parte IV.

"Big box retail stores are losing relevance, while e-commerce and specialty stores grow in appeal. People no longer want — or need — to shop as anonymous customers in large stores with shelves stocked high in aisle after aisle. As a result, big box retail must shift its strategy — from competing on access and selection to staging big experiences and providing big discounts.
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The shrinking demand for big box retail can be seen in the numerous store and company closures across several categories over the last decade.
...
These large-store format companies are losing share to Amazon and other e-commerce sellers and to specialty retailers. The former are able to offer a wider selection than even the largest brick-and-mortar store can and their digital tools make it easy to navigate an otherwise overwhelming number of choices with ease, speed, and precision.
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The appeal of the latter is an edited, or even curated, selection of goods targeted to specific customers who self-select into shopping at the store — and these smaller stores often provide superior, personalized service. Not all specialty stores are thriving, but as a whole, the specialty segment of retail is growing while most other sectors have been on the decline.
...
Big boxes can shift from being places to stock and sell goods and become venues to stage immersive, memorable, share-worthy experiences. While specialty stores might create an intimate or personal experience, large stores are conducive to experiential retailing that is communal and physical.
...
An alternate route for big box retailers is to offer big discounts, using well-honed supply chain and analytics capabilities to offer high-demand products at low margins — with the immediacy and interactivity that e-commerce players can’t. Volume and velocity are required to make this model work"

Estas coisas devem dar um nó na cabeça dos académicos sempre à procura da solução correcta. Não há solução correcta! Não é um puzzle! Cada empresa é um caso, cada caso tem de ter a sua própria solução.

Parte IV - ainda experimentando mais com mais experiências

Parte I, parte II e parte III.

"America's malls have been dying for years. Of the nearly 1,200 enclosed malls in the U.S., one-third are doing so poorly that they aren't generating enough money to pay for the maintenance of the structures themselves. Part of this decline can be traced to the Internet. Now that consumers can easily buy products online, brick-and-mortar retail stores can't afford to simply serve as showcase rooms, only to see visitors buy the very products they offer from Amazon at lower prices. They need to offer exceptional in-person experiences to keep customers coming, buying in, and returning to their stores.
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In the midst of this graveyard of malls, new retail concepts are emerging.
...
"We're really interested in creating a reason for customers to come to the store several times a week.
...
He points out that a brick-and-mortar store needed to offer more than a mere physical space for selling products. Boyarsky wants people to associate his brand with not only fashionable activewear, but also a whole world of experiences connected to wellness surrounding fitness, nutrition, and special activities. "We want to be seen as a curator of the fitness world,""

Trecho retirado de "In The Graveyard Of American Malls, Bandier Is Reimagining The Brick-And-Mortar Store"

Parte III - experimentando com mais experiências

Parte I e parte II

"Macy’s new concept store seems to have been conceived by dutifully checking off boxes on a “hot retail trends” list.
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On June 25, the struggling department store chain will unveil a new prototype in a renovated store at the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio, filled with lifestyle shops that play up services.
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The mix of in-store shops includes the Restore, Nourish and Strengthen boutique, stocked with athletic wear such as Finish Line footwear, Fitbit watches and even a juice and smoothie bar, according to The Columbus Dispatch. With the shop, staffed with health and fitness “ambassadors,” Macy’s is angling for a piece of the only robust part of the apparel market, while capitalizing on the nation’s ever burgeoning health and wellness trend.
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The store will also debut a free personal-shopper service dubbed, My Stylist @Macy’s; a LensCrafters eyeglass shop with licensed opticians; and a Bluemercury spa by the beauty chain Macy’s acquired last year, offering facials and waxings. Bluemercury reflects Macy’s move to modernize its beauty business along the lines of hot — and hipper — freestanding concepts like Sephora .
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A revamped wedding services department is also on tap, clearly a bid by Macy's M +2.59% to appeal to Millennials, the coveted generation that’s displaced Baby Boomers as the nation’s biggest buying group and is projected to generate $1.4 trillion in sales by 2020, according to Accenture ACN +0.00%.
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Macy’s efforts to offer lifestyle shops spiced up with services and on-staff experts points to an urgent push to counter the encroachment of e-commerce by giving consumers something online shopping can’t: tangible experiences and in-person pampering.
...
Macy’s will be watching closely how shoppers take to the new prototype to see what can be rolled out to other stores. And management is crossing their fingers. ”Instead of teaching someone to ring a register, we’re hiring people who understand the lifestyle,” said Kathi Newton, vice president and store manager told the Columbus Dispatch. “I think this is going to be a real game-changer.” We’ll see."

"Can Facials And Fitness Experts Revive Macy's?"

Parte II - Um festival de experiência e transformação

Parte I.

"Grocers offer fitness classes, facials, child care to lure consumers away from online rivals...
Shoppers looking to pick up milk and eggs may have other reasons to spend time at their local supermarket: yoga classes or a spa treatment, perhaps.
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Under growing pressure from discounters and online rivals, supermarkets are trying to transform themselves into places where customers might want to hang out rather than just grabbing groceries and heading home.
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In Phoenix, a Fry’s Food Stores, part of a chain owned by Kroger Co., features a culinary school and a lounge with leather couches perched next to a wine bar. A Kroger store in Hilton Head Island, S.C., offers a cigar section to complement its wine cellar that stocks $600 bottles.
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Whole Foods Market Inc. has a putting green outside its Augusta, Ga., location and a spa offering peppermint foot scrubs and facial waxing in a Boston store. Elsewhere, it has bike-repair stations.
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A ShopRite store here in Hanover Township, near New York, runs a fitness studio with yoga, barre and Zumba classes and has a cosmetologist on weekends."

Recordar Pine e Gilmore:

"with experiences, customers pay for the time they spend with a company, rather than for the activites the company delivers"

Recordar "Versão Beta (parte III)"
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Lembram-se do avanço imparável dos centros comerciais sobre o comércio tradicional? Agora temos o avanço do online sobre os centros comerciais. E temos as experimentações, para reformular o modelo e encontrar alternativas que façam os clientes voltar aos centros comerciais.
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Não sei se resulta, não sei quanto tempo terão de fuçar para encontrar as alternativas viáveis. Sei é que estão a fazer o que deve ser feito: fuçar, fuçar e fuçar. Pois:

“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.”

Continua.

Trechos retirados de "Attention Shoppers: Yoga in Aisle 3"

Parte I - Os problemas de um modelo

"Department stores were built around the idea that consumers would come to the store for inspiration and discovery. But retailers can no longer rely on that draw. Consumers increasingly get inspiration online first, from social media and blogs, and not from the retailers themselves.
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When that happens, the decision-making process employed by shoppers gets turned completely on its head – consumers start to choose the specific products they want to buy before they choose where to buy them from. This leaves department stores forced to compete on price instead of value.
...
Another place where department stores are getting hammered is on the fast fashion front. Retailers like Zara and H&M can put out new fashions every few weeks. Department stores were built around the concept of featuring brands, almost like a store-in-store.
...
If your only value proposition to consumers is that you have great brands under one roof, you’re going to lose. ... News flash: you can get great brands anywhere. And when you look for them online, even if they’re at different stores, they’re only a tab away.
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So what should department stores stand for, then? They should stand for a lifestyle. They should stand for things that help consumers solve their lifestyle problems. But stores have been gutted. High-end luxury department stores are the exception. The rest of the vertical have no expertise in stores. Not beyond what I could get asking random people on the street. Why should I go to a store when I can get better advice from blogs? At least they have followers to help give them some cache and sense of expertise.
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And department stores are not organized to present solutions to lifestyle problems. Need an outfit for a wedding? Well, first you have to go to dresses, and then shoes, and then accessories. Need a new outfit for a job interview? Same deal, except it may be even worse. You might have to visit several brand vignettes to find this brand’s suits vs. that brand’s suits, and then start all over again if you need a blouse or shoes to go with.
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Now, part of the problem is that the brands themselves want their vignettes. They want their voice to the customer to stand out, even within the department store. But how do consumers shop online? They see all blouses together. They can filter by brand if they want, but the primary sort is the function first, brand later. And you just can’t shop that way in a department store."

Trechos retirados de "Here's What's Wrong With Department Stores"

Acerca da evolução dos consultores de compra no retalho

Nestes tempos de ascensão do retalho online, algumas formas de batota que ajudam os consultores de compra, em lojas físicas, a fazerem a diferença:

"A decision validator – reducing the perceived risk of purchases by assuring buyers they’ve made a good decision.
...
A choice navigator – improving customers’ decisions among many options.
...
A needs identifier – helping customers uncover unfelt or latent needs.
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A community builder – connecting customers to each other and to the brand.
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An insights collector – gleaning customer insights for the company. As many B2B companies will attest, a sales force can be a valuable customer research tool."

Trechos retirados de "What Retail Sales Associates Still Do Better than Websites"

O futuro do retalho passa pela batota

"“You’re not going to win the selection process with Amazon today,” he said. “You’re not going to make it up on price or convenience anymore. You truly have to be honest with yourself about how you’re going to play that game with Amazon.”"

Trecho retirado de "Churchill Club retail panel says Amazon can be beaten — maybe"

Fugir do atractor que destrói valor... apostar na batota

Algo que, de certa forma, já foi abordado aqui no blogue várias vezes, a diferença de exigência entre o consumidor americano e europeu, por exemplo aqui e aqui:

"As one might expect, the chief executive officer of Prada, Patrizio Bertelli has a somewhat snobby take on U.S. department stores: They’re too low-rent, what with never-ending discounts. “They seem to be on a permanent end-of-season sales mode,” Bertelli said during a conference call late on Friday.
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Even for Prada, a brand that would rather die than be caught in an “everything-must-go” situation, this is a growing problem. “They are not interested in promoting products and brands while in display, because they are constantly engaged in markdowns,” Bertelli said. Translation: “If you’re the type of consumer who buys $450 sneakers, you’re focused on the shoes, not the price.”
...
“It would be a pretty easy thing for us to sell €100 million [$136.6 million] or €200 million more through wholesale accounts, but it’s very detrimental in terms of brand image,” Bertelli said. “We’d rather stay away from that.”
...
But as customers insist on a deal, Wall Street—and now, perhaps, suppliers—fear a race to the bottom. While department stores might need sales to lure shoppers, at least some luxury labels don’t. As Prada slowly exited big-box retailers in the past five years, its profit margin climbed from 6 percent to 19 percent. (That’s net profit, not operating or EBITDA or any other rose-tinted metric.)
...
The more blue-blood brands ditch big boxes and go it alone with spiffy Web stores and slick boutiques, such stores as Macy’s evolve toward being glorified outlet barns."

O mesmo se aplica às marcas que deixam de apostar nos centros de produção na Ásia. Claro, para poder fugir deste atractor que destrói valor há que saber co-criá-lo, é um novo modelo de negócio.
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Trechos retirados de "Prada CEO Explains Why Department Stores Can't Have Nice Things"

O futuro do retalho

"The Experience-Seekers – “value the best experience, not just price” (32%). As the largest segment of M-Shoppers, they demonstrate why retailers still need to invest in providing a unique and compelling in-store experience.
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The Traditionalists – “prefer the in-store shopping experience” (30%). These shoppers are committed to purchasing in-store, making them the least threatening segment for retailers. They are open to interacting with retail stores on their mobile devices, whether by website, store app, or even scanning a QR code."

É nesta gente, nestes 52% dos consumidores que o retalho tradicional, ou clássico, ou físico, se tem de concentrar para ter um futuro. Tem de perceber que não consegue competir no preço puro e duro.

"Retailers don’t have to resort to automatic price-matching to compete with online shopping. We uncovered several opportunities for retailers to engage M-Shoppers on their phones as part of the shopping experience. These range from varied discount strategies, to exclusive in-store experiences, providing the right mobile-ready information, engaging shoppers in social media, and designing loyalty programs that build long-term relationships with customers."

No entanto, basta ouvir quem está à frente da associação do comércio para perceber que estão longe desta reflexão. Por agora, culpa a crise como a única responsável pela queda das compras no comércio, por causa da perda de poder de compra.
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O poder de compra há-de regressar e as vendas não subirão em linha com esse aumento. Então, procederão como o comércio tradicional procedeu aquando da invasão dos centros comerciais, sem estratégia, sem segmentação, sem diferenciação... muito choradinho e pedidos de subsídios.

Trechos retirados de "The Surprising Truth about Showrooming and the Mobile-Assisted Shopper"

Ver também "JPMorgan Chase's Brian Tunick on Retail's Recovery via Value Pricing"

Acerca da batota

Ron Johnson acaba de ser despedido e é o bombo da festa no festival de críticas à sua gestão (por cá, a culpa seria do IVA ou da crise, ou do Gaspar), por isso, interessei-me logo por um artigo com um título "contrarian", "What Ron Johnson Got Right":

"Ron Johnson chose the wrong store - regarded by some as a retail backwater frequented by coupon clippers - to roll out his brazen strategy, and his execution was a disaster. But his concept was exactly right. Bricks-and-mortar retail was (and is) in a period of anxious soul-searching, and Penney itself was in deep trouble. The patient needed radical surgery. Johnson didn't have the time or temperament to dicker. When I interviewed him in 2011, just after he'd taken the reins at Penney, I asked whether it wasn't a risky proposition to completely reinvent the department store. "The opposite is what's risky," he told me. "Over the past 30 years, the department store has become less relevant... largely because of decisions the stores have made... They didn't think about the future so much as try to protect the past." The problem, he explained, wasn't the stores' size or location or marketing power or physical capabilities, "It's their lack of imagination — about the products they carry, their store environments, the way they engage customers, how they embrace the digital future." (Moi ici: Numa palavra, a falta de aposta na batota)
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That's not crazy talk. Johnson saw the problem clearly, he had an appropriate sense of urgency, he had a gut sense about how to get Penney out of its bind — and a belief"

Será que abordaram o tema?

A propósito de "Marcas próprias valem um terço das vendas nos hipers", pelos vistos, esta semana houve uma conferência sobre o "Papel do Comércio Moderno na Retoma Económica" promovido pela EuroCommerce e pela Associação Portuguesa das Empresas de Distribuição (APED).
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Será que abordaram este tema "Andreessen predicts the death of traditional retail. Yes: Absolute death". Acho a afirmação demasiado radical e baseada na sobrevalorização do factor preço, o que joga a favor do e-comércio. E sendo o preço a vantagem competitiva dos "hipers"... Ooops!
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A mensagem de Andreessen é uma chamada de atenção para os que estão no retalho físico, valorizem aquilo que Andreessen não menciona, não vê, ou não quer ver, porque tem investimentos no software:

• a batota da relação, da interacção; da experiência total em loja;
• a exclusividade da oferta;
• a tribo que se pode formar em torno da loja;
• a customização;
• a co-produção;
• e não esquecer "Consumers will pay more to touch":

"it suggests that your local bookstore—where you can reach out and ruffle a paperback’s pages—may have more staying power than e-commerce experts might think."

Para os interessados no futuro do comércio a retalho, ou online

A situação do comércio a retalho em Portugal é a mais negativa da Europa:

"A taxa de variação homóloga do índice de volume de negócios no comércio a retalho(1) situou-se em -8,9% em fevereiro, taxa mais negativa em 1,1 pontos percentuais (p.p.) que a observada em janeiro."

Enquanto procurava este artigo no Google,  comecei a pensar:
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Quanto da quebra no comércio a retalho pode ser explicado por uma migração para o online? Se eu sou só uma pessoa e no meu trabalho contactei recentemente com 3 empresas que estão a desenvolver projectos de venda online, quantos projectos estarão em curso? Se eu quase só compro livros via online...
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E, durante a pesquisa, encontrei este artigo "O retalho online em Portugal" com estatísticas interessantes acerca das vendas online:

"Os dados para Portugal apontam para um crescimento previsto em 2011 de 21,2% contra 21,4% em 2010 e 20,6% em 2012. O crescimento não desacelerará significativamente até 2015 com uma taxa de crescimento anual média de 19% (2010-2015)."

"Num cenário de estagnação previsível do sector do retalho em Portugal é fácil perceber que, apesar do seu pouco peso, as vendas online terão um papel fundamental no crescimento que o sector poderá vir a atingir.
O desafio do sector em Portugal é que esse crescimento não se esvaia para empresas não localizadas em Portugal. E, para já, os sinais não são muito animadores. Em 2011 as pesquisas no Google em Portugal por termos como Amazon e Ebay cresceram, respectivamente, 55% e 38%, contra 23% de crescimento das pesquisas pelos termos com mais volume do sector que incluem as principais insígnias do mercado nacional."

Para os interessados no futuro do comércio a retalho, ou online, talvez seja útil reflectir sobre este artigo "Carving Up the Retail Industry by Customer Jobs to Be Done".
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Relativamente ao "Retail Job: Selection" acrescentaria uma vantagem para a loja online ou física, em função de quem a apresentar - a vantagem da exclusividade.
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Acrescentaria um outro "Retail Job" o da experiência da co-produção, tanto pode funcionar para a loja física, "Vamos construir uma bicicleta?"; como pode funcionar para a loja online "Vamos customizar as sapatilhas?"

Qual é o melhor pregador?

Nos congressos, nos encontros, nas conferências, nas reuniões realizadas pelas associações sectoriais e pelos grupos patronais, em vez de tantas referências aos governos, ao que fazem e não fazem, aos apoios, aos programas. Em vez de tantos ataques à concorrência, da grande distribuição, dos chineses, dos paquistaneses. Em vez de tantas lamurias acerca da falta de fidelidade e de dinheiro dos consumidores...
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Talvez fizesse sentido ouvir a mensagem de alguém que os pusesse em frente ao espelho e os fizesse assumirem a sua quota parte de responsabilidade.
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A última que descobri, meio-embasbacado, foi esta "Invasão de ouro chinês ameaça ourives nacionais"... comprar ouro chinês? Aprendi há muitos anos com Flávio Silva, o erro do principiante é o de sobre-estimar o concorrente. Tanta preocupação com a concorrência não deixa espaço para se ser o que se é.
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Qual é o melhor pregador?
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O que faz um belo sermão que nos maravilha, ou o que nos deixa inquietos connosco próprios e nos impele a agir?
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Fazem falta vozes como esta nos encontros cá da terra:

"It all comes down to consumer choice, and the operative word there is "choice," said Ryan Mathews, executive editor of Grocery Headquarters Magazine.
"If everything is the same, there is no choice," he said during the convention's general session at The Mirage. "The future lies in offering a clear alternative that has value. This industry, like so many American industries, is focusing on the symptoms and not the disease."
Mathews said business owners like to blame consumers for not being loyal, but in many cases, they haven't given their customers any reason to be loyal.
They're too focused on advertising item and price because that's how they've done it for 80 or 90 years.
"Things have changed," he said. "Ozzie Nelson has been replaced with Ozzy Osbourne. What we need to do is think about the permanent change in the way people shop."

...

""They're out there waiting for someone to recognize they're out there and offer them something to be loyal to," Mathews said. "You have to differentiate through the eyes of your customer. You've got to do what you do best. Think of the value for your customer."

E se isto é válido para o retalho, lembrem-se do que é que penso acerca do retalho e da sua mensagem para as PMEs...  a prateleira do retalho é uma espécie de ratinho de laboratório, muito do que acontece no retalho agora e com mais rapidez, há-de acontecer no futuro com as PMEs.
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Trechos retirados de "Grocery industry may be suffering from lack of differentiation in fueling loyalty"

Experiências no mundo do retalho

Interessante, agora que tantos e tantos acreditam que as Amazons vão dar cabo das lojas de pedra e cal... a Amazon vai abrir uma loja de pedra e cal!!!
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"Amazon 'to open first physical shop'"
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Qual é o desafio que eu vejo nesta abordagem?
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A Amazon, segundo Bezos himself, é uma empresa que trabalha para reduzir preços, está habituada a essa linha de orientação, esmera-se em aperfeiçoar e aprofundar os trade-offs que vêm agarrados a essa proposta de valor.
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Ao ler "The shop is being opened in a bid to gauge how profitable a chain of retail stores, in a similar vein to Apple, would be, reports the US books blog, Good E-reader.
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It will focus on selling Kindles, the new Kindle Fire tablet, which has yet to go on sale in the UK, and also a range of ‘Amazon Exclusives’ physical books, which the technology giant publishes."
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Querer copiar a Apple... não me parece boa ideia para uma empresa forte no preço mais baixo.
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Ao mesmo tempo, o criador do conceito da loja Apple, agora como CEO da JC Penney, anda a experimentar um novo conceito de loja "J.C. Penney gets rid of hundreds of sales" o fim das promoções e saldos... (algo que, se pegar deste lado do Atlântico, ainda vai sobrar para as PMEs portuguesas, porque este modelo obriga a cadeias de abastecimento mais curtas).
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Lembram-se do que escrevi sobre os saldos de 60% da Sacoor?
Lembram-se do que David Birnbaum escreveu sobre os saldos? ("the longer the lead time, the longer the markdowns")
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Eis o que a J.C. Penney vai experimentar:
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"J.C. Penney is permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent so shoppers no longer have to wait for sales to get bargains."

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Sintomas de que muita gente anda a fazer experiências no mundo do comércio... por cá... será que a CCP acha que a salvação virá dos políticos? Deviam estar a desafiar, picar, "chatear", apoquentar os seus associados para reflectirem sobre o futuro e prepararem uma resposta ao colapso da procura interna e ao poder da distribuição grande, não com base em benesses dos políticos (sempre perigosas, por causa dos juros que trazem agarradas) mas através da escolha dos clientes-alvo e da sua sedução. 

Ainda e sempre a batota

Quantos de nós entram numa loja e saem sem comprar nada porque:

• o funcionário era mal-educado;
• o funcionário era ignorante;
• o produto, apesar de presente no sistema, não foi identificado;
• o tempo de espera para ser atendido ia ser demasiado;
• o tempo de espera para pagar ia ser demasiado;
• a loja estava suja;
• ...

Uma receita que proponho há vários anos, para atacar esta rede de situações é a batota!

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Este mês, a revista Harvard Business Review publicou o artigo "Why "Good Jobs" Are Good for Retailers" de Zeynep Ton:

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"The conventional wisdom is that many companies have no choice but to offer bad jobs - especially retailers whose business models entail competing on low prices. If retailers invest more in employees, customers will have to pay more, the assumption goes.
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I have studied retail operations for more than 10 years and have found that the presumed trade-off between investment in employees and low prices can be broken.

...

If investing in retail labor is such a good idea, as my research suggests, why isn’t everybody doing it? The main reason is that labor is often a retailer’s largest controllable expense and can account for more than 10% of revenues—a considerable level in an industry with low profit margins. In addition, many retailers see labor as a cost driver rather than a sales driver and therefore focus on minimizing its costs.

...

Moreover, the financial benefits of cutting employees are direct, immediate, and easy to measure, whereas the less-desirable effects are indirect, long term, and difficult to measure.

...

instead of responding to short-term pressures by automatically cutting labor, stores should strive to find the staffing level that maximizes profits on a sustained basis. In many cases, that will mean adding workers.

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Retailers do not just underinvest in the quantity of labor. They treat the quality of labor the same way - paying low wages, offering insufficient benefits, and providing inadequate training. The short-term pressures are just too difficult to resist. The inevitable consequences are understaffed stores with high turnover of low-skilled employees who are often part-timers and have little or no commitment to their work.

...

When my colleague Ananth Raman of Harvard Business School and I first started working with Borders, we found that there was a huge variation in operational performance among stores that used the same information technology and offered the same incentives to employees. The performance of the best store was a whopping 43 times better than that of the worst store. Part of this variation, we found, could be explained by labor practices. Stores in which employees had less training, greater workloads, and higher turnover performed worse.

That is not surprising. Operational execution requires people. So stores with a gap in people—too few employees or unmotivated or incapable employees—will have a gap in operational execution. But few retailers realize the seriousness of operational problems and how much money they lose by underinvesting in employees.

...

When retailers view labor not as a cost to be minimized but as a driver of sales and profits, they create a virtuous cycle. Investment in employees allows for excellent operational execution, which boosts sales and profits, which allows for a larger labor budget, which results in even more investment in store employees.

...

Mercadona, QuikTrip, Costco, and Trader Joe’s do not expect the virtuous cycle to operate on its own. They complement their investment in employees with operational practices that make the execution of work more efficient and more fulfilling for employees, lower costs and improve service for customers, and boost sales and profits for the retailer. These practices allow retailers to break the presumed trade-off between investing in employees and maintaining low prices.

...

Retailers that operate in a virtuous cycle, by contrast, make choices that simplify their operations. They consistently offer “everyday low prices” rather than a kaleidoscope of promotions, and they carry fewer products.

...

Not surprisingly, I found that unpredictable schedules, short shifts, and dead-end jobs take a toll on employees’ morale. When morale is low, absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover rise, increasing the variability of the labor supply, which, of course, makes matching labor with customer traffic more difficult. In addition, retailers with high turnover cannot afford to invest in employee training; average training per new retail employee is a mere seven hours in the United States. Untrained or poorly trained employees are less productive and make more errors.
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Instead of varying the number of employees to match traffic as much as other retailers do, Quik­Trip and Mercadona vary what employees do. They achieve this by training employees to perform a variety of tasks.

...

Retailers that invest in employees are by no means easygoing about what people do. Rather, they are obsessed with eliminating waste and improving efficiency."

Batoteiros, consultores de compra e raptos

Ao longo dos anos neste blogue, de quando em vez, quando a minha atenção está mais virada para o mundo do retalho, uso com frequência os marcadores:

• batota; e
• consultores de compra

Quando penso em co-criação de valor, em valor durante a venda, durante a transacção, e em valor que emerge durante a experiência de uso, recordo logo um texto de Nirmalya Kumar, que não consigo localizar, que salienta a crescente importância do marketing no ponto de venda, na "prateleira".

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Voltando a este postal "Da compra à experiência de uso... uma eternidade" e a este grito de Irene Ng "THINGS HAVE NO VALUE IN THEMSELVES", começo, com a minha linguagem colorida, a pensar em raptar pedaços da experiência de uso, para as usar em simulações no momento da compra para reduzir aquela eternidade e para reduzir as incertezas de que fala Irene Ng... quem é que faz isso? O consultor de compra. E quem é que pensa nisso? O batoteiro!

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Tudo isto a propósito de um artigo publicado na revista Harvard Business Review deste mês de Dezembro "Retail Isn't Broken. Stores Are":

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"HBR: Brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling, in part because of the growth of e-commerce. Is the traditional retail model broken?
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Johnson: I don’t think the model is broken at all. Many stores are executing it very well. ... Physical stores are still the primary way people acquire merchandise, and I think that will be true 50 years from now.

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Aren’t consumers dramatically shifting their buying to the internet?
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It varies a lot by category, but only about 9% of U.S. retail sales are online today, and that rate is growing at only about 10% a year. ... In reality, what’s growing is physical retailers’ extension into a multi­channel world. It’s not as though there’s a physical retail world and an online retail world, and as one grows, the other declines. They’re increasingly integrated. But physical stores will remain the main point of contact with customers, at least for the stores that take the lead in this integrated environment.
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(Moi ici: Começa a sinfonia dos batoteiros e dos consultores de compra) How do you take the lead?
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A store has got to be much more than a place to acquire merchandise. It’s got to help people enrich their lives. If the store just fulfills a specific product need, it’s not creating new types of value for the consumer. It’s transacting. Any website can do that. But if a store can help shoppers find outfits that make them feel better about themselves, for instance, or introduce them to a new device that can change the way they communicate, the store is adding value beyond simply providing merchandise. The stores that can do that will take the lead.
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(Moi ici: Agora para o comércio tradicional sempre a queixar-se dos centros comerciais e a tentarem defender um modelo de negócio ultrapassado) So it’s not department stores’ size or location or physical capabilities that are their problem. It’s their lack of imagination—about the products they carry, their store environments, the way they engage customers, how they embrace the digital future. There’s nothing wrong with the capability. There’s a problem with the execution.
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Think about the online experience today. What online does best is compete on price and, depending on your circumstances, convenience. That doesn’t create new value. It’s a race to the bottom—the lowest cost and fastest fulfillment. (Moi ici: Criar valor, fugir da guerra do preço, é a linha de orientação que as lojas de rua têm de assumir)

Em vez de esmolar...

Ontem vi uma reportagem na TVI onde se descrevia o que está a acontecer no sector do retalho e se vaticinava qual poderá ser o seu futuro próximo.
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Claro que uma das soluções avançadas pelos entrevistados era o clássico apoio do Estado... Jogadores de bilhar amador! Não percebem que é essa mentalidade de tudo pedir e tudo esperar do Estado que o legitimou no seu absurdo crescimento nos últimos 30 anos?
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Quanto mais o Estado distribui em apoios mais o Estado tem de crescer para administrar essa tarefa, mais o Estado tem de saquear em impostos, mais o Estado rouba dinheiro à economia natural e, por isso, mais falências acontecem.
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Em vez de pedirem apoios ao Estado lembrem-se deste conselho e da história das sapatilhas e do urso e apreciem este artigo "VALIDATING A RETAIL SERVICE QUALITY INSTRUMENT IN APPAREL SPECIALTY STORES".
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Em vez de esmolar por um apoio pedo-mafioso, por que não olhar para dentro e procurar fazer diferente. De certeza que pode melhorar algo:

• "Physical aspects – includes functional elements like layout, comfort and privacy and also aesthetic elements such as the architecture, colour, materials and style of the store.
• Reliability – a combination of keeping promises and performing services right.
• Personal interaction – the service personnel being courteous, helpful, inspiring confidence and trust in customers.
• Problem-solving – the handling of returns and exchanges as well as complaints.
• Policy – a set of strategies, procedures and guiding principles which the store operates under such as high quality merchandise, convenient operating hours, availability of parking spaces and payment options."

Em vez de atacar de frente, flanquear, fazer o by-pass para chegar à mente de quem (verdadeiramente, no fim) manda nos donos das prateleiras

Acabo de ler no Público on-line este artigo "Maçã de Alcobaça de boa saúde". Alguns comentários:
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"A par da pêra-rocha, a maçã de Alcobaça vive também dias felizes no Oeste. A fileira (cluster) deste fruto já emprega 2500 pessoas, 20 por cento das quais são quadros qualificados relacionados com a engenharia agrícola e alimentar.(Moi ici: E quantos na área do marketing dedicados a criar uma marca?) Em 2010, foram produzidas 40 mil toneladas desta maçã que representaram uma facturação de 40 milhões de euros. A exportação representa 15 por cento das vendas, sobretudo para Inglaterra e Irlanda, mas também para Angola e Cabo Verde.
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Jorge Santos, presidente da Associação dos Produtores de Maçã de Alcobaça (APMA), diz que a internacionalização não é uma aposta estratégica porque ainda há muito espaço em Portugal para este mercado crescer, substituindo até a maçã importada.

O sector tem vindo a consolidar-se graças ao associativismo dos produtores e ao maior peso da actividade agro-alimentar, que faz com que, por exemplo, se venda maçã fatiada em embalagens de plástico (Moi ici: Já contactaram empreendedores interessados em máquinas de vending com fruta fatiada ou não nas empresas, nas universidades, nas cantinas, ...) e em sumos com elevada densidade de polpa.

É isso que explica o emprego de cada vez mais especialistas neste sector, desde engenheiros agrónomos nos pomares, até aos técnicos de qualidade à saída das linhas agro-industriais.

Apesar das facturações crescentes e do sector não ter perdido valor com a recessão, Jorge Santos aponta alguns constrangimentos que exigem uma maior intervenção do Estado.

"Não reclamamos subsídios nem somos a favor deles. (Moi ici: Aleluia!!!) Mas queremos que o Governo regule (Moi ici: Demasiado perigoso confiar nessa entidade pedo-mafiosa) o mercado e os oligopoderes que nos espartilham", diz Jorge Santos.

E que oligopoderes são esses? As energias, a banca e a distribuição. Sem energia não há regas, não há tractores no campo, nem unidades de armazenamento nem linhas de produção. Sem banca não há crédito. E sem a distribuição não há escoamento do produto, sobretudo para as grandes superfícies.

"Só que os três atingiram uma posição assustadora que violenta a relação com os produtores. Sobretudo a distribuição tem um peso excessivo contra o qual nós nada podemos. São eles que ditam os preços." (Moi ici: Só há uma forma de lidar com o poder dos donos das prateleiras, seguir o exemplo da Purdue e começar a fazer-lhe o by-pass. Criem uma marca, associem essa marca a maçãs saborosas, não às insípidas maçãs importadas porque colhidas muito cedo. Usem a internet para chegar ao consumidor, não poderão escoar a maioria da produção mas começarão a criar na mente do consumidor um lugar para a marca. Por exemplo, há 2 anos elogiei aqui no blogue as maçãs de Moimenta da Beira à venda no Pingo Doce. Meses depois, as embalagens de maças vendidas sob a marca Pingo Doce deixavam de trazer a localização da produção. Em vez de guerra declarada, estudem Nirmalya Kumar, estudem Thomassen et al. O que a distribuição faz em Portugal, não é diferente do que se faz nos outros países, por isso não adianta ladrar-lhes, há que os vencer no seu próprio jogo: o poder da prateleira tem limites.) Jorge Santos diz que em 1992 havia 15 insígnias de supermercados para os quais vendiam maçã de Alcobaça, mas hoje há apenas cinco."
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No livro de Christian Gronroos "Service Management and Marketing" pode-se ler:
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“As reported by Sheth and Sisodia, from 1947 to the mid-1990s manufacturing and operations costs decreased from 50% to 30% of total costs, and during the same period management and administrative costs have decreased from 30% to 20% of total costs. Meanwhile, marketing’s share of total costs has increased from 20% in the 1940s to 50% in the 1990s. Since then no major change for the better has taken place.”

Desculpas e mais desculpas, sempre em negação

Quanto mais vou mergulhando mais me convenço que as críticas que se fazem aos empresários portugueses não se devem ao facto deles serem portugueses numa cultura católica mas de serem humanos:

"Retailers are suffering from all the ills complained about by David Jones, but complaining isn’t doing them any good, isn’t helping them adapt to changed circumstances and competition, changing consumer desires and habits, changing retail channels and choices. Some observers have fingered the bigger picture as the retail industry having to come to terms with Australia restructuring in the same way that car makers/dairy farmers/wagon wheel manufacturers have had to deal with the restructuring of their industries.
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(Moi ici: Agora reparem no que aí vem. É divinal!!! Estão a imaginar os políticos e os académicos a explicar que temos de baixar os custos para sermos mais competitivos? Pois bem ...) David Jones’ only response seems to have been to discount. “Let’s have a sale!” Wow, that’s innovation for you in established Australian retailing."
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"The customers know and happily tell anyone who wants to listen what’s wrong with many stores – overpriced, underserviced, (Moi ici: Nota-se tão bem a redução de funcionários de loja relativamente ao ano passado e, sobretudo, o serem cada vez mais novos e com menos formação) unexciting and just plain boring."(Moi ici: Lembrei-me logo da Papelaria Fernandes)
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"Denial is the first step to failure – and there’s plenty of that among the counterjumpers"
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"The real threat to Australia’s tired and boring retailers from the internet is the information it provides. Comparison shopping is a given on just about everything."
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Trechos retirados de "Retail war: Zahra v Zara, Zara winning"
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BTW mais uma ida à Tavar's para ser bem atendido e bem servido.

Não vejo diferenças!

Leio o artigo "Let Emerging Market Customers Be Your Teachers" de Guillermo D’Andrea, David Marcotte, e Gwen Dixon Morrison, na revista Harvard Business Review deste mês de Dezembro e pergunto:

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Qual a novidade? Qual a diferença para os mercados dos países desenvolvidos? Não vejo diferença nenhuma!

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"In developing economies, the retail aisle is where the marketing action is—it’s where customers make purchasing decisions. McKinsey studies show that in China, for example, as many as 45% of consumers make those decisions inside stores, compared with 24% in the United States." (Moi ici: Nirmalya Kumar, Thomassen & Lincoln pelo menos, apontam para a mesma tendência nos mercados dos países desenvolvidos)

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Segue-se trecho retirado de "Retailization : brand survival in the age of retailer power" de Keith Lincoln, Lars Thomassen & Anthony Aconis.":

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"Shoppers have grown increasingly sceptical of brands and retailers alike and their endless marketing claims. They have become increasingly informed, thanks to the internet, as they are able to compare prices, service levels and features at the click of a button. This is knowledge they actively use as a weapon in their increasingly aggressive and independent shopping behaviour. Shoppers are squeezing the brand to perform and be priced according to their wants.

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When these super-charged and scarily informed shoppers are out there they do not waste time. Their loyalty stretches only a couple of seconds: as Rolf Eriksen, CEO of H&M, told us in the Preface, ‘Our success depends on what customers think when they meet us, and we believe that our customers spend four seconds to decide whether they like the meeting or not.’

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The Economist (2005a) reports that shoppers waste no more than six seconds on average looking for a specific brand before they settle for an alternative. This is fascinating stuff.

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In a 2004 report, retail experts POPAI described how more and more brand decisions are made in-store. In Europe, 75 per cent of the purchase decisions are made after the shoppers enter the store. In the United States, the number is 70 per cent (Liljenwall, 2004)."

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Voltando ao artigo da HBR:

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“Customers buy the cheapest or the best. Whether the economy is strong or weak, developed market consumers tend to buy across the price spectrum. They might show up at the register with a high-end digital camera, medium-quality linens, and cheap sunglasses. Emerging market consumers focus on essentials, favoring the lowest-priced items that offer acceptable quality, even when it comes to luxuries. They tend to know the exact price of everything they want and refuse to pay more.

They also refuse to buy in greater quantities than they need, even if that means they must purchase an individual piece or two from an opened package in a traditional outdoor market.” (Moi ici: E o que é isto senão a aplicação deste artigo de 2005 “The vanishing middle market” que tantas vezes cito neste blogue)

O mesmo primeiro trecho retirado de Retailization serve para suportar este outro trecho da HBR:

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“Consumers care about quality, not status. In developed economies, many companies successfully position their brands as status symbols. But in areas with low incomes, that strategy often falls flat.

The allure of status isn’t enough to induce consumers to buy. Instead, shoppers care most about quality. Multinationals may feel they’ve got the quality issue covered, but it’s not always that simple” (Moi ici: O mesmo no mercado dos países desenvolvidos. Basta procurer o marcador Centromarca, basta estudar o avanço das private label, basta estudar os autores que referi acima, basta ler “Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer“ de Michael J. Silverstein e John Butman”)