Digital Defrags Are Saving Retailers’ Assets
The digitization of stores, the rise of retail media, and retail theft prevention all share a common trait: rapid evolution from disjointed, scrappy efforts into unified opportunities that boost retailers’ bottom lines. Now, a surge of innovative solutions is emerging, promising to consolidate complex opportunities and standardize approaches to challenging problems.
A new era of retail defragmentation is underway.
Carol Spieckerman connects three trending topics that highlight the escalating advantages unification will bring to retail.
Episode highlights:
· Why third-party solution providers are heading for a heyday.
· How embracing complexity is maximizing retail media opportunities.
· Why multi-faceted in-store solutions are now table stakes.
· How retailers’ united front will take a bite out of retail crime.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Most early attempts at in-store digitization were driven by brands. A lack of unification ended up compromising rather than enhancing store experience. Retailers are taking back control and building it all back on their own terms.
Unified retail media means that retailers’ efforts will be far more targeted and personalized, combining in-store, online, and out-of-home media. Brands will be able to gauge the effectiveness of campaigns on a granular level.
Fragmentation is also standing in the way of meaningful retail crime mitigation. Now, with the implementation of the INFORM consumers act, that is set to change. At its hearT, the INFORM act unifies multiple retail crime stakeholders into a focused effort, supported by transparency and accountability.
Unified solutions are the wave of the future. Increasingly, retailers will expect solution and service providers to offer multi-faceted solutions that check many boxes. Spot-treating capabilities in search of a problem are starting to drop off. It only makes sense that as retailers push toward unified solutions, third-party providers should be doing the same. If you are an ingredient, it’s time to start thinking about how to make the full recipe.
