The Holiday Shopping Season: Why Technology Could Make or Break Retail Brands

The holiday shopping season has long been a battlefield for retail brands. Independents and big boxes have fought for traffic and sales while trying to position their brands to consumers as helpful, knowledgeable, unbeatable and more. The retail environment is tough this time of year: Certain toys are hot. Game systems are in demand. People line up outside stores for hours. Consumers have even come to expect polite, but painful, disclaimers such as “while supplies last” and “quantities may be limited.” This year, however, the final perception of a retailer’s brand may be shaped by technology in the physical world – and the online world.

Channel Strategy Is Becoming Harder To Defend
Not too long ago, manufacturers, distributors and retailers could keep customers guessing through various forms of channel management strategy. Nearly identical products could be given slightly different names in addition to a few tweaks to the construction, warranty and features and then sold at different retailers for sometimes dramatically different prices. Consumers did not have the shopping tools to see through the variations. To them the products seemed different. Today, the web makes it easy for the customer to find and compare products. Professional writers and part-time bloggers also collect and analyze product information. Even message boards have comments from regular consumers outlining the differences in similar products. The “great deals” and “exclusive offers” touted by retailers begin to feel hollow when customers can easily find better deals and similar products.

More Information Means Less Fear of Missing a Deal
Bfads.net and blackfriday.info had over 3 million and 4 million visitors respectively this November. Traffic at Black-Friday.net more than doubled to 4 million visitors. Twitter’s List feature went down on Cyber Monday as people looked for and shared information about deals. In addition to the deliberately leaked deals by retailers and constant advertising, consumers are now discovering deal info like never before via text messaging, picture messaging and email. No store’s deals seem that special when consumers have access to every store’s deal.

Clicks and Bricks Inventory Integration
Retailers have done an amazing job of integrating local store inventory data with their web sites. Many sites now give users the ability to see if an item is available at a local store. Unfortunately this is a razor sharp double-edged sword. When done right consumers feel triumphant (and the retailer looks smart). But, ask a retail salesperson how a customer reacts when the items that was supposed to be in stock is sold out. Customers roar, “I came here because your web site said you had it in stock – where is it!” The brand damage caused by inventory being out of sync is horrific.

New Store and Shipping Programs
Retailers further integrated dotcom properties with their brick and mortar stores through the use of clever shipping options. Customers could buy online and ship to a local store, or buy at the store and have it shipped to their home. Both programs are reportedly having success. The one weak spot has been training temporary store employees where to find merchandise that has been shipped to the store for customers.

Consumers Want Bigger Pictures Online– And Lots of Them
Think about how today’s consumers are using digital cameras. At a birthday party, do they shoot one picture of the kid and guests around the cake, or do they shoot dozens of shots? Answer = dozens. This has a direct translation to their expectations about web sites. Consumers do not want to see one shot of a product application – they want detailed image galleries showing a variety of shots. It is no long sufficient to show a picture with a caption that says “Product shown in Sunset Red, other colors available.” Consumers will want to see the other colors. Postage-stamp sized pictures won’t cut it any more, either. Consumers have adopted broadband connections so download time is less of an issue. Don’t forget video. With YouTube now serving over a billion clips per month, videos are a consumer must-have.

Small Retailers Will Need to Tackle Local Digital Advertising to Stay Competitive
Local search marketing (geo-based), local directories, Craig’s List, specialty sites like Angie’s list, and the digital counterparts of local newspapers, TV stations and radio stations will soon be essential to the smart local retailer. Other forms of marketing will always have a role to play, but as the consumer moves their entertainment, leisure and shopping activities online, businesses will need to follow. Small retailers need to be seen in those venues to keep their brand in the consideration set along with major retailers.

How will retail brands fare this shopping season? Some will fail. Others will fly. Consumers will ultimately lets us know through tweets, reviews and texts.


Kenneth J. Weiss is the author of the new book, Slightware – The Next Great Threat to Brands. Download the first chapter for free at www.Slightware.com