CBD Retail’s new rules for 2015: It’s all about being connected
JANUARY 18, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Stores must confront change from tech to real estate
This year, retailers are learning to play by a new set of rules.
Retailers are entering 2015 by confronting the most sweeping changes in the last 100 years. That was the consensus as a record number of retail executives gathered last week in New York City for the 104th meeting of the National Retail Federation.
It’s not just the steep increases in online shopping that they must respond to, but the shifts in how consumers connect with sellers through mobile phones, tablets and Wi-Fi-enabled devices in stores are causing retailers to rethink their business models. Today, building a state-of-the-art mobile application to ease instant transactions via smartphone is seen as a wiser investment than spending millions on a new store.
At the four-day retail convention, five new retail realities emerged from the thousands of hours of panel discussions, keynote addresses and informal meetings on the exhibit floor. Here are the new rules for 2015:
You need fans more than you need customers
It is telling that this year’s retail think-tank began with five sports executives — from the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and the Women’s Tennis Association, and two presidents of a National Football League team and a German soccer club — talking about the lessons retailers can learn from passionate sports fandom.
Paraag Marathe, president of the San Francisco 49ers football team, told retailers that during a typical game, 50 percent of the crowd is using the team’s mobile app, either making reservations for the stadium’s restaurants, downloading statistics, or buying team shirts and hats. The goal, Marathe said, is creating more fan loyalty and engagement, not selling. “You can’t sell season tickets to a sold-out house,” he said.
The hockey, basketball and women’s tennis associations also are trying to bolster fan engagement by making information and statistics available through mobile apps.
The customer-as-fan theme was repeated in sessions throughout the four days of the convention, with experts saying that in today’s world selling isn’t about getting a random person to stumble on your store and buy something, but about creating brand loyalty that makes shoppers look for you and buy from you, whether it is online, in a store, or on their phone.
In a later session at the convention, James Curleigh, president of the denim retailer Levi Strauss & Co., said that he thinks of his customers as fans and that retailers need to give them a memorable experience that keeps fans coming back. Levi’s decision to put its name on the new stadium in San Francisco, where the 49ers play and where rock concerts are held, is part of its plan to connect with new fans, he said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/retail-s-brave-new-world-1.1215250
