Retailers are experiencing a period of profound change. How individual companies react will determine so much about their future. Factors such as technology advancements, growing e-commerce, demographic and economic shifts, lifestyle and consumer preference changes, and many more are forcing retailers to think and act differently. Established retailers face a decision: endure this change and hope for the best, or embrace it and evolve for the future. Industry leaders overwhelming are among the later set. These retailers recognize that the role of the disruptor need not be ceded to new market entrants. Instead, retailers can be their own disruptor, and many are doing just that. Look for that kind of thinking to become more prominent in 2017.
This disruption of traditional retail business models is leading to conspicuous changes, such as industry consolidation, retooled shopping experiences, new store layouts, and an increasing digital connectedness. But it doesn’t stop there. Retailers have an amazing opportunity through their stores and digital assets to test new products, formats, marketing messages, experiences, and business models. Those experiments don’t need to be investments in large pilot projects, but instead small and quick experiments. The two-year, well-funded pilot project is likely to be replaced with small-scale test followed by rapid prototyping. Or at least it should be.
Adapting slowly is unacceptable in today’s environment. While still guided by data and performance analysis, in 2017, retailers will accelerate internal innovation and disruption, and plant a thousand seeds for the future.