Evolution of Retailers and Retail Services?

In the past I have written about blurring lines between Retail Services and other vertical services such as Financial Services. As conventional retailers come under more and more pressure from shrinking economic climate they are bound to explore this trend. This will see they expanding into not just multi-channel but genuine growth of their portfolio into other verticals. Latest indication of this happening is the news that leading UK retailer M&S launching their banking services. M&S Bank will open more than 50 branches over the next two years, with the first debuting next month at Marks & Spencer's flagship Marble Arch store. The Bank will offer a current account by autumn.

The fashion and food retailer will target customers with a new current account in the autumn in an attempt to make banking more convenient for its shoppers and encourage them to spend more on M&S products. The bank will be run in collaboration with HSBC, which has owned M&S Money since 2004 and takes a 50 per cent share of profits. M&S, which has 3m customers across a range of credit cards, loans, savings and insurance products, would not reveal whether it planned to charge for current accounts but said it would reward customer loyalty. Talking to the FT, Colin Kersley, chief executive of M&S Bank said, “There won’t be much point banking here if [people] don’t shop here.”

Will other retailers follow in M&S footsteps? Probably they will await the outcome of this experiment before embarking on their own similar adventures, I think. 

Tesco CIO - "We don't have an online strategy, we have a retailing strategy that is increasingly digital"

“I don’t think we have an online strategy, we have a retailing strategy that is increasingly digital. Online is becoming part of the core business,” says Tesco CIO Mike McNamara. “We are starting to make a more significant investment in internet platforms, which we will continue to develop. Digital platforms are now our new equivalent of building shops,” he told Computer Weekly.

The complete interview here....

End of "High Street Retail" As We Know It.....

More than 2,000 UK jobs were axed yesterday, as Game Group closed hundreds of shops after the company collapsed into administration. The beleaguered video games retailer, which had 610 UK stores, was unable to meet a £21m second-quarter rental payment due on Sunday and appointed the accountancy firm PwC as administrator. Is this the end of "High Street Retail" as we know it? Is it the beginning of the end? 


The writing was on the wall for Game for some time now. Earlier this month,the struggling video games retailer had confirmed that a number of its suppliers were refusing to do business with the company, sending its shares down 63% to 1.29p. Back then Game said that while it was trying to resolve the matter "as quickly as possible", it was unsure if its efforts would be successful.

The Game is not the only retail business struggling for the past few years. Almost all high-street retailers have recorded reduced operating margins and profits, if at all they were there. The difficulties at Game are testament to the current squeeze on living costs coupled with a change in shopping habits and games technology. The group has also been battered by competition from cheaper rivals on the internet, such as Amazon and Play.com, and the major supermarkets. Separately, many people now download game Apps direct to tablets or smart phones, rather than buying software to be loaded in to consoles like the PlayStation, xBox on Nintendo Wii.

What the Game story tells us however is something unique where a Technology brand is being eaten by fast evolving technology business models. As Matthew Warman states in the Telegraph, "the story of Game is simply the first taste of what the web is doing to global retail – its products happen to be bought by users who migrated quickly to the web. All other specialist retailers are being challenged online: Whittards, to take just one example, is under pressure from specialist tea and coffee retailers such as Teahorse and Kopi, who will send subscribers superb selections every month, and cater to profitable, premium niches yet don’t have the overheads of high street rents and other associated costs. Many consumers simply see that they don’t have the inconvenience of shopping. Where Game led, even the most aromatic of products is set to surely follow." 

It was not so long ago that another high-profile retail venture went bust in the UK. It was in November 2011 that, Carphone Warehouse announced that it was to close all of its 11 Best Buy stores across the UK. The first Best Buy store in the UK only opened in April of last year. But the outlets failed to make a profit. Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy initially planned to open 200 Best Buy stores across the UK and continental Europe. But clearly they had to abandon those plans well and truly before they could take-off. Is there market left for technology shopping on UK high-street? Probably there is and there will be always that small niche segment of shoppers who prefer to touch their electronic goods, CDs, Games and likes before they buy them. But that segment is shrinking all the time and internet players will certainly be calling the shots in this segment of Retail market.

Starbucks Lightens Up with Mellower 'Blonde' Brew

Starbucks (SBUX) introduced the American consumer to high-powered gourmet coffee, and even somehow convinced us to use words like "venti" when ordering large caffeinated beverages. Now, the coffee giant hopes we'll become accustomed to a new lighter roast that it calls Blonde. There are plenty of holdouts out there who prefer lighter, less robust coffees. The complaint among those who don't dig Starbucks' fare is that the brew tastes "burnt," or in the language of coffee connoisseurs, "bold."

read original AOL article here....

New Book - out now on Amazon

Latest publication by BCS features couple of my articles. The title of the book is “Management Skills in IT” and it is now available onAmazon.

Retail technology needs to think on its feet

I came across an interesting and relevant blog post by Paul Broome, CTO at TOREX. He lists a number of examples of innovative retail trends and experiments such as, Ebay shop on Oxford Street, Shoreditch Boxpark, John Lewis pop-up shops (listed below) and then argues that IT can play a significant role in leading such future innovations.

• E-tailer giant eBay has taken its proposition to an empty shop just off Oxford Street where it has opened the eBay Boutique. The store is stocked with 350 eBay bestsellers ranging from perfumes to digital cameras and flatscreen TVs. There are no tills, instead customers pay with their smartphone by reading QR codes on product tags.
• Shoreditch's Boxpark project mall recently opened; this being the world's first pop-up mall, built from stripped and re-fitted shopping containers.
• John Lewis pop-up shops at the Vintage at Goodwood festival for the last two years running. The shop was geared towards the festival's audience, stocking vintage products and running sewing workshops, fashion and furnishing advice.

In an example of how technology can respond he cites Apple example. Apple has been using its own products as portable POS system for some time. The combination of a HTML5 POS with the portability and low cost of tablet computing means this type of technology is well-suited to retailers, restaurants and bars looking for a flexible solution. The technology is applicable for delivery through a cloud-based service, making it easily accessible, without a big investment in hardware and can be set up in a matter of minutes. He argues that, such agility and flexibility could allow retailers to explore new sales channels to meet targets, particularly in the run-up to Christmas and over the January sales.

How $1.25 Billion Gets Spent In A Day - Cyber Monday

Further sticking with the theme of past few posts....sharing an interesting article by Karen Frankel on Blockbuster Cyber Monday. She notes that the spending increased 22%, the largest jump on record. Ten million people bought products online, comScore says, gobbling up $1.25 billion in goods easily beating the online sales offered on Black Friday.

Given the chilly economy, this turnabout is something of a surprise. One factor may have been "austerity fatigue," says comScore's Vice President, Industry Analysis, Andrew Lipsman. Consumers were so hungry for a break from the ongoing constraints of the financial crisis that they indulged like chocolate addicts at a Godiva outlet. Shopping sprees at work, where buyers could avoid family members looking over their shoulders as they selected surprise gifts, accounted for half the dollars spent, comScore said. Consumers also had greater-than-ever-access to online promotions and searchable coupons.  Over 550 merchants made special offers on Cyber Monday, including free shipping, hourly specials and exclusives, and sneak peeks of the hourly deals shared via email alerts.