The retail business model is changing. Gone are the days of selling rigidly defined assortments via stationary outlets to anonymous but loyal customers. The trend is now toward selling flexible assortments via variable channels to a small number of customers who are willing to offer their loyalty. As a result, store locations and available assortments alone are no longer decisive.
In the future, the value retailers generate for customers through digital services will effectively determine retailers’ success. These digital services can comprise product information, innovative price and delivery models, as well as benefits in terms of process speed and quality.
This development is accelerated by a change in consumers’ preferences – instant satisfaction, using instead of owning, anywhere/any time.
Direct digital access to customers also puts manufacturers in a position to sell directly to customers. As a result, the traditional role of the retailer is coming under pressure from all participants in the value chain. Retailers can no longer rely on the core competency of having the “right” assortment at the “right” price in the store. Customers enjoy 360° visibility when it comes to prices and competitors. This means retailers have to offer articles and services that cannot be compared easily, if at all (proprietary products, bundles, services), or even price models that, unlike conventional sales prices, do not permit comparison (subscription, club).
For traditional retailers, this also means understanding their existing stationary presence as value added in new digital business models, and not as a burden.
This new customer relationship is characterized by:
Implementing this paradigm, however, has to resolve the conflicting goals that stem from a traditional sales channel perspective:
KPS has more than 800 experts specializing in stationary and digital retail. Benefit from their expertise in processes and technologies: realigning the strategy, the organization, and the corporate goals is an important precondition for generating customer value in the digital business models.