Premiär för Centigo Retail Outlook i Shanghai

Shanghai – 10 maj 2013

Idag  presenterades Centigo Retail Outlook 2013 i Shanghai. Åhörarna bestod av representanter från ett antal internationellt ledande retailers och deras representanter i Kina. Centigo Retail Outlook 2013 innehåller sju trender som sätter finger på några av de hetaste utmaningarna inom retail som Centigo identifierat. Presentationen i Shanghai genomfördes av Håkan Bengtsson, Centigos expert på internationella retailtrender och Johan Waller industriansvarig Retail.

Centigo tar varje år fram sju trender som utgör Centigo Retail Outlook. Normalt används trenderna som verktyg att driva diskussioner med Centigos kunder i samband med affärsutvecklings- och strategiarbeten. Val av trender och exempel anpassas då efter situation.

Årets sju trender:

1. Retail becomes an important part of society
Retailers must take an active role in contributing to all stakeholders. Consumers expect retailers to take active responsibility and contribute to society through the business itself. Donations and environmental compensation is no longer enough.

 2. Millennials are the pacemakers of the retail race
Millennials, or Generation Y, are characterized by growing up with internet, mobile and social media as a natural part of their lives. Millennials is the most important generation for retailers to understand, their buying power is rapidly growing, and they are teaching older generations to an extent no generation have before. Millennials should be given priority in all customer segmentations.

 3. Don’t underestimate the iceberg
The consumer expects to be served whenever she wants, however she wants! The industry is talking about the new customer facing technologies that can create an omnichannel experience; this is the tip of the iceberg. The challenge is to offer this experience through all the existing systems and operations; this is what is below the surface. There is no best practice yet and it is very common to underestimate the required effort.

 4. Develop under new brands
Many retailers start new brands to test what works and what doesn’t—in new and in current markets. This minimizes the risk of ruining a brand that has taken years to build and allows you to test new things without moving the iceberg first.

 5. Don’t take gross profit for granted
Traditional retail is built around the generating gross profit from sales of products. Amazon is an example of an actor that earns a large portion of profits from non-retail revenue, such as sales of advertising or commission sales. When retailers have competitors not dependent on gross profit from retail sales they must find new business models.

6. Global bricks & mortar is about brands
Retail becomes more international and single-brand retailers are leading the way, both in emerging and mature markets. With a well-established brand it is easier to enter a new market. For a multi-brand retailer it is hard to enter and compete on new markets. Most markets have strong local retailers and there is a challenge to build a local offering in a new market. As many multi-brand retailers return to focus on their home markets, single-brand retailers continue to expand.

7. Empower your associates
Today’s consumers, lead by the millennials, expect whatever they want, how they want it and when they want it. This changes the logic in today’s retail as most retail jobs are controlled by streamlined processes rather than focused on personal service. This means a major change for many retailers as they need to make sure they have the right people and the right conditions in place to provide the customer service their customers expect.

För mer information eller frågor:

Johan Waller, partner och industriansvarig retail
johan.waller@centigo.se
+46 70 699 76 09

Håkan Bengtsson, expert inom affärsområdet retail
hakan.bengtsson@centigo.se
+46 70 410 57 42