Retail – Going global & mobile
Global, mobile and social were prevailing themes at this year\'s recent National Retail Federation Convention & Expo, which drew 27,000 people from 70 countries and packed the meeting halls and aisles of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York
Global, mobile and social were prevailing themes at this year's National Retail Federation Convention & Expo, which drew 27,000 people from 70 countries and packed the meeting halls and aisles of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.
Conference speaker Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillan Doolittle, said global retailing has "escalated" in the last three years, with the world's largest retailers, like Walmart and Tesco, achieving their most growth through international expansion.
According to Ira Kalish, senior partner of Deloitte Research, of the world's top 250 retailers, 40 entered new countries in 2010 with a total 88 market entries, and in 2011 that went up to 107 market entries. Africa was on everyone's lips as the hot region to watch. "The big story is Africa, which has seen the most market entries," said Kalish. In 2011, 21 foreign merchants took root on the continent their through franchise deals, startups or acquisitions. While South Africa is its biggest economy, Kalish said to keep eyes on Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya too.
Former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, a keynote speaker, encouraged retailers to partner with local business men and women, farmers and source locally when doing business in foreign lands. "Three pillars support prosperous societies," said Annan, "peace and stability; development, and rule of law and respect for human rights."
Mobile technology for in store operations, to launching promotions to performing sales transactions and taking payments, is still an area of discovery for retailers.
Martine Reardon, chief marketing officer for Macy's, said the department store chain is testing mobile payment services Google Wallet in five markets and the Isis system in two markets. Over Black Friday weekend, it designed a mobile app that enabled shoppers to see maps of their local Macy's stores that pinpointed where the sale items were. Reardon said it was successful, but took a lot more work than they anticipated. She also said another mobile program took shoppers to a video of Bobbi Brown explaining how to create a smoky eye. "Sales for those items doubled," said Martine.
And as companies begin to use more mobile devices on the selling floor for product information and checkout, questions about who is responsible for security and maintenance are coming into play. "It can't just be a help desk issue," said a representative of technology firm Airwatch.
Yet mobile has still underperformed as an actual shopping tool despite all the hype, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research. While online sales have been growing double digits and represented 15 percent of holiday sales this year, mobile transactions accounted for less than 5 percent of that. And with more mobile devices coming on the market, "it is a challenge for retailers to know what device to design for." Besides, Mulpuru predicts the ecommerce explosion is about ready to end: "The party can't go on forever."
Social media, while successful promotionally, has not been much better as a mover to purchase, she said. "Facebook has been very, very challenged from an ecommerce perspective."
But retailers are finding social valuable to emotionally engage customers. To encourage consumers to connect with the brand without feeling pressured to buy, a year ago it introduced the HSN Arcade, a gaming portal for women. "It just logged its 100 millionth game play," Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN said during a panel on customer happiness. "There is a real shift in consumer behaviour that is driven by technology, social networks and mobility," said Grossman. "Companies that are embracing this change are going to connect more intimately. In today's environment you need to create an experience that is not transaction oriented."
