I suspect that there have been some underlying issues that are driving Walmart to slow down the addition of sellers on its marketplace. The statement that Walmart is “focused on adding the best items our customers want from the best sellers” implies that customers may have experienced some bad experiences with product quality or deliveries from third party sellers on the Marketplace. Managing the quality of many thousands of third-party sellers is a daunting task and any missteps impact consumers’ perception of the Walmart brand. Amazon has done a good job of standing behind the quality of its sellers and make it easy to return unsatisfactory or damaged goods – typically with free shipping. Another reason behind this is that Walmart is now focusing on margin and not simply sales. Retailers focus on making money and selling other peoples products while increasing sales erodes margin. I believe the increased focus on margin is the right step for shareholders. Walmart’s slowdown of adding sellers may be temporary, as they may be retooling some of their seller screening, margin contribution and quality control processes. Walmart is laser focused on competing with Amazon, so stay tuned....

Data breaches aren’t going away and retailers need to make customer payment and data security a priority. While payment data breaches have garnered most of the headlines, and consumers feel the pain when they need to cancel breached credit cards, fraudsters continue to move to the next most vulnerable place to get sensitive data that they can sell or try to use for identity theft. Retailers need to focus on all data, beyond just payment data. They need to secure systems and networks to lock down their private label credit cards like they do for normal bank cards and treat PII and corporate financial data like they have been treating PCI data for the last several years. It is an never ending battle.

Smaller stores will likely play a larger role in the strategic mix of Target and many other retail chains. It is all about convenience and location, location, location. Smaller store footprints make it possible to open stores in urban locations and smaller neighborhoods that can’t support a full-size store. It also requires less capital and with the right assortments of fast moving items, the sales per square foot can easily exceed a large store’s metrics. Many chains like Target have already located stores in the easy locations, but as they move into urban areas where real estate is harder to come by and locations are not cookie-cutter, they need to look at the organization structure, the footprint, and the processes as well as the technology.

While Amazon’s fast and free deliver is exclusively for Prime Members, I doubt that consumers factor that into their expectations for other retailers. Therefore, the bar has been set and retailers need to come close to the same level of service for their customers. Changing customer expectations is not a realistic strategy. The challenge for retailers is to strike a balance between customer expectations and profitable sales. The delivery costs need to be factored into product pricing or covered by membership programs — otherwise it will likely result in unprofitable sale sales. Retail is getting more challenging every day!

Like all segments of retail, drug stores are going through a transformation to adapt to changing customer shopping behaviors and new competitive dynamics. Shifting its focus from expanded grocery items to offering broader health care services via partnership seems like a smart strategy for Walgreens. While grocery staples may drive additional impulse/convenience purchases during a shopping visit, they probably don’t increase store visits. However, if drug stores offer more services — like same-day delivery, FedEx pick-up and drop-off, in-store lab services, optical care and enhanced patient care offerings — it might increase store traffic and result in increased sales. The doctor may in fact be in at Walgreens! Retailers are continuing to redefine the role of the store and it is essential for survival.

This is an excellent example of using AI to improve the customer experience and merchandise planning. Gamification makes it entertaining for consumers, especially for Millennials and younger generations, which increases engagement and the likelihood that they act on the recommendations generated by AI. Gathering a wealth of fashion opinions from consumers will also help planners identify new trends, which will enhance decisions for new product commitments and local assortments. This information will be critical to consumers as well who are fashion challenged (like I am and probably 50% of the population), those who are color blind (4.5% of men and .5% of women) or to be more politically correct color vision deficiency or CVD. Today stripes go with checks that one would never wear in the past but this service will help us curate our wardrobes and gives us all a fashion forward nudge.

It is hard to say if the level of differences in purchasing behaviors of men and women have changed in recent years, but there is no arguing that there are differences ("Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus"). I still believe we have hardwired hunter/gatherer tendencies that contribute to men bringing home the product while woman tend to be more contemplative and gather the information before making the purchase decision. Retailers’ analysis of shopping behaviors and segmentation though must go beyond gender to personas and ideally to individuals as we morph to more gender neutral roles.

Amazon lockers are a definitely a draw to attract spillover and micro traffic into Whole Foods stores. Retailers need to do everything they can to drive store traffic. When consumers are picking up their items from the locker, it is convenient for them to pop into the Whole Foods and pick up a few items that are on their shopping list or select from a wide variety of prepared or made to order foods. Since many Amazon members may not be typical Whole Foods customers, it is a great way to introduce a broader audience to the brand. This strategy is likely to introduce Amazon shoppers who aren't already existing customer to embrace the healthy alternatives they have curated and benefit from impulse and convenience purchase. This strategy will likely be embrace by other retailers to extend their brand to new demographics. It will be interesting to see what Whole Foods stores look like in a couple of years. For example, will they carve out a section in the front of the store to become AmazonGo stores within a store for shoppers in a hurry?

Easy to order replenishment of grocery and standard CPG items will be the gateway for consumers to adopt voice commerce. Once consumers are comfortable with easy to order items, they will branch out to gradually more complex product purchases. It is all about convenience and accuracy. During a conversation, devices can understand about 150 words a minute and a fast typist can type about 40 words per minute. Studies have shown that a voice command purchase can be completed up to 3 times faster than typing on a keyboard or phone. Adoption will continue to grow as the accuracy of voice commerce improves from currently 90% to 95%. We should be looking at voice devices beyond commerce and more of an ecosystem that can connect with your customers in real-time.

The answer is both! While many retailers think of Amazon as the enemy, they do many things very well that are worth emulating: personalized online experiences, efficient delivery times, reasonable or free shipping costs (for preferred members), and easy checkout processes. Retailers looking to differentiate from Amazon should focus on the benefits of their physical stores and store associates. Many consumers appreciate the theater of shopping and retailers that offer special events and unique, interactive shopping experiences can increase customer loyalty and compete with Amazon. Amazon is not invincible. Personalized experiences and services are the keys to beating Amazon.

Macy’s is making a lot of smart moves to transform their business to meet new customer expectations: better assortments, interactive product selection tool (VR), mobile shopping and payment options, etc. Many of these changes are focused on giving customers more choices or options in their shopping journey. All of these initiatives will enhance the shopping experience. The area that isn’t addressed in these initiatives is how Macy’s plans to improve the level of service associates provide to personalize the shopping experience. While some consumers prefer to be self-sufficient during their shopping experience, others want personalized service from an associate. Department and furniture retailers that offer friendly, available and knowledgeable sales associates will differentiate their brand and earn customer loyalty. A focus on sales floor leadership, customer engagement, zoning (sales floor coverage), performance metrics, staffing, scheduling and training are keys to success in big ticket furniture retail or really any brick and mortar operation. We have to be careful not to focus too much attention on technology and lose sight of the personal touch of retailing.

The West Elm LOCAL Experience is a smart strategy. Consumers love the theater of shopping and often choose to invest more in experiences rather than products. The interactive LOCAL Experience helps create an emotional connection with customers, which helps enhance brand loyalty. Offering unique, personalized experiences is one of the best tools to elevate the shopping journey and differentiate your brand. Interactive, experience-based activates or events can be an effective strategy for virtually every type of retailer. The key is to offer compelling experiences that appeal to the interests of your customers.

To meet elevated consumer expectations, successful retailers are transforming their retail and customer engagement models. Retailers realize they need a new approach to enable a unified experience, an approach that supports the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, as they engage their customers in a consistent and ubiquitous experience. The next wave of customer service technology, in the guise of Distributed Order Management (DOM), is upon us. Order Management will truly be the POS of the future. I also think the statistics from the Forrester study (personalized shopping experiences was a priority for 15 percent of store-based merchants, while 12 percent were using tech to better enable associates to serve customers in stores) seem very low. Personalizing the shopping experience, equipping sales associates as well as their customers with the right tools and positioning DOM should be the top priorities for retailers.

There were several factors that contributed to the demise of Toys “R” Us. Obviously, their debt situation was a significant challenge. The other big challenge was the nature of their business of selling “commodity items” that can be purchased many places which results in price pressures and disintermediation by online retailers (e.g. Amazon). Survival of retailers selling commodity merchandise requires new approaches that differentiate your brand with personalized services and experiences. Maybe Toys “R” Us would have been more successful if they would have made their stores a destination by creating interactive experiences and events in the store. People enjoy the theater of shopping and that is the value of the physical store. Their online experience is very good ... simple and easy to use as is their BOPIS but too little too late. Walmart on the physical store side, Amazon on the e-commerce side and the heavy debt load pushed them beyond the point of no return.

IKEA realizes that busy consumers truly value convenience and offering their customers a convenient service to purchase, deliver and assemble furniture is a way to make their lives easier. Consumers that don’t want to deal with the hassle of assembling furniture were probably previously reluctant to purchase unassembled items from IKEA. Those that did make initial purchases were frequently dismayed by the assembly hassle and didn't return again. This value-added service will expand IKEA’s target audience to broader demographics and also eliminate the bad customer moments attached to the 1st purchase assembly nightmare. The TaskRabbit services networks will enable IKEA to potentially offer other value added services. Other home furnishing retailers that sell unassembled furniture may likely follow the leader and offer similar assembly services or look to partner with third-party companies to offer this service. This is a real winning move for IKEA!