The World Wide Web turned 20 years old this week. In just two decades the world as we knew it changed—irrevocably and for all time. Today we just talk about the “Web,” and it’s easy to forget just how much we rely on that presence. I’m writing this from seat 10F at 36,000 feet, but I’m still somehow connected, so FOMO (fear of missing out) has been averted for now. 
A plethora of new terms have entered our lexicon: online, blog, e-everything, i-everything, showrooming, 4G. Let’s not forget tweet, text and like (old words, new meanings). The list is ongoing and changing daily, as are new pages, sites and ways to connect. Big data is all the rage as we try to decide what to do with all this stuff that is being created and stored away. read more…
What are you doing about “big data?” That is a question making the rounds with retailers today. Or turned around it’s, “What am I supposed to do about big data?” The problem with these questions is that they miss the point entirely. In fact, the whole discussion about big data is missing the point.
Talking about big data is like talking about which operating system the Mars lander “Curiosity” uses. It’s interesting if you’re a programmer; the rest of us just want to know what’s up there. Big data is a means to an end, but we talk about it like it’s the point. For retail marketers, big data provides a method to derive useful, predictive insights that can generate incremental sales and drive loyalty from shoppers. read more…
The Transferability Delusion – Why Trying to Replicate a Business Success Can Lead to Trouble
Way back in 1996, American Stores opened nine “combination” stores in Southern California. They were called combination, or combo, stores because they combined a complete supermarket with a complete drug store. Those familiar with the Chicagoland market will recognize this as a typical Jewel-Osco. Indeed, it was these stores—owned at the time by American Stores—that were the impetus for the new combo stores in Southern California.
The stores, called Lucky Savon, were set in existing buildings, all former Smith’s locations. All were in the neighborhood of 80,000-90,000 square feet with a full complement of service departments, including a pharmacy. Jewel-Osco stores at that time were virtually printing money; they generated margins and EBITDA at roughly double the industry average. American Stores saw an opportunity to transfer this ability to Southern California. All they needed to do was copy the successful Chicago stores. At least that was the plan. read more…
A recent article in the New York Times discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks of digital shelf price tags, commonly known in the industry as electronic shelf labels (ESLs). Aside from the moment of nostalgia that overtook me (I remember the days of the “chunk-a-chunk-a” sounds), the rest of the article was interesting but didn’t dig into the significant challenges that come with digital tags.
The ESL industry—including companies like Altierre, which was mentioned in the article—has focused on two primary benefits to using ESLs: labor savings and pricing accuracy. Keep in mind that ESLs have been around, largely in their current form, since the mid-1980s, and they have offered these same promises since their inception. The article quotes the president of Atlanta Retail Consulting, and the fact that the payback just isn’t there. If it was, he says, you would see them everywhere. Exactly. read more…
The National Retail Federation’s annual “Big Show” was held last week in New York. I’ve always viewed this event as more of a tech show than anything, and it’s continued to be more IT focused as each year passes. There’s virtually nothing here about growth strategy or how to compete in a changing environment. What is here is a lot of technology that will enable marketing and growth plans. It’s sort of a CES for retail. read more…
In the movie “The Untouchables,” a stylish take on the battle between Eliot Ness and Al Capone in prohibition-era Chicago, Sean Connery’s character repeatedly asks Ness (played by Kevin Costner) what he is prepared to do. “He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue.”
The movie centers on Treasury Agent Ness’s commitment to rid Chicago of illegal booze, and most of all, Al Capone. By the end of the film, with Capone in prison, Ness claims to have violated everything sacred to him in order to achieve his goal. read more…
New research from the NPD Group shows that nearly 100 million people (or about half of Internet users) listened to music online in the past three months. No surprise there. Services like Pandora, Spotify and I Heart Radio have all gained loyal followers, and as in the case of Pandora, have even made their way off the desktop and into cars.
Streaming music and movies have been around for some time, and while the technology is getting better, it’s not perfect yet. But it’s also moved beyond the early adopter stage for the most part. In 2004, someone famously made the statement that more homes had outhouses than DVRs. Eight short years later, I can guarantee that this is no longer true. Adoption happens, but how quickly and among which demographics can sometimes be surprising. read more…
In the 2008 Disney/Pixar animated film WALL-E, the Earth has been obscured in consumer trash and has become uninhabitable; humankind has left in search of a better life among the stars. We see our descendants later in the movie, lounging blobs with robots doing all the work.
I’ve been looking at some various projections of what retail will look like in 2020 (that’s only seven years away) and they all seem to have this same end in mind. Virtual stores, algorithmic fitting of clothing and same-day shipping dominate the future. The question I have is once we’ve gotten rid of all the brick and mortar stores, where will we go on weekends? read more…
There’s a term child psychologists use for toddlers who engage in play next to each another, but don’t directly interact: it’s called parallel play, and every parent has seen this activity. It’s typical from about 18-30 months or so, after which kids start to actually play together.
The term came to mind this week as I watched the two major forces in the computing world each do their best to capture share of mind and wallet. Apple announced (or confirmed anyway) that it’s going to offer a smaller tablet, called the iPad Mini. And Microsoft launched its first all-new operating system in a decade, logically named Windows 8. read more…
Last week I was in California visiting family, but like most of us on “vacation” these days, I was still working in my subconscious. One of my goals while there was to get my mother-in-law set up on a new computer; her old one was just that—old, and wouldn’t allow her to watch videos of her grandkids or Skype.
Apple wasn’t an option—she knows how to operate a PC, and has no interest in learning the quirks of a new operating system. I went to the local Best Buy store in Costa Mesa to scope out options; this of course after doing some online research beforehand. I didn’t have time to order something and have it shipped, so buying in a local brick and mortar was part of the plan. read more…
