Featured: Carol Spieckerman on AI in Retail Podcast

Carol Spieckerman talked about the power of platform positioning and shared her hottest Retail Trajectories with Trevor Sumner on Raydiant’s AI in Retail podcast.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CAROL

Retailers are no longer just places that sell stuff, they are operating as technology platforms. The best opportunities in retail going forward will be unlocked through platform building, platform partnership, and platform monetization. If you want to win with retailers, you’re no longer just selling stuff, you’re positioning platform to platform.

Solutions and services are becoming a much bigger part of retailers’ platforms. They serve as a hedge against many product-based headwinds such as retail crime, inflation, supply chain snags, and labor shortages.

Retailers were myopically focused on the digital side of the business for so long, and COVID exacerbated it. A turnaround began to unfold as retailers started to think of stores as assets, rather than albatrosses. Walmart led the way to this mindshift, viewing stores as a critical component to its overall omnichannel strategy.

Now, we’re seeing rashes of remodels, digital brands are opening stores, E-commerce giants like Amazon are realizing that stores have to be part of the strategy. Stores are not dead, they are just different, and true scale is no longer achieved in a single channel, even digital.

Retailers are taking a more measured approach to in-store digital and they are taking more control, mainly to monetize in-store activity. Retailers that make decisions through a customer experience lens will be more successful. Grocers have been at the forefront of implementing solutions that are truly customer centric. Once trust is built with customers, retailers can push the envelope with more self-serving technologies and capabilities. Either way, retailers have to be willing to fail fast and move on, particularly when consumer backlash against specific initiatives hits a fevered pitch.

Retailers are realizing that partnerships are far more agile and flexible than attempting to build in-house solutions. Retailers have never been more open to outside partnerships and there have never been more third-party solution providers at the ready to plug into retailers’ platforms. Retailers are now reserving the right to shift from owned solutions to platform partnerships or conversely, to lean into partnership initially then bring solutions in house once they learn the ropes. Suppliers must realize that partnerships may not last forever and stay on their game.