The Retail Industry Is Transforming With Technology
Today, the adaptation of information technologies to the leap made by technology has been quite rapid. E-commerce, which has become a new sector on its own after the Internet stepped into daily life, did not remain indifferent to these developments. Despite the crisis and fluctuations, the e-commerce sector continued to grow like an avalanche, regardless of the bad course of the economy. The history of e-commerce goes back to the 1990s. These years may coincide with the childhood years of some and the youth years of others.
From its earliest days, online commerce has been seen as a serious threat to the extinction of traditional retail stores. The development of internet technologies and the realization of the shopping experience in a store that can be accessed anytime / anywhere will continue to be a remarkable feature in every period.
While this means quick and easy shopping for consumers, it's a different story for retailers who have had to adapt to the changes brought by e-commerce. It is getting harder and harder to deal with the fact that brick and mortar warehouses are no longer consumption centres.
Very Critical Decisions and Quick Actions Required
If stores created from four walls and with a lot of creativity want to maintain their place in the market, it is critical for them to join the playground of e-commerce and be friends with them. The Internet has embraced many online retailers and can do the same for traditional retailers, and those that do it well are even starting to reap the benefits. Also, social media is a great platform to start building an online presence. Physical stores and e-commerce can work together to provide the best possible customer experience. One of the best examples of this is Best Buy . It can play an active role at the time of purchase by using the power it creates in the online world with the barcode it has developed so that its customers browsing the store can access comments about the product on the online platform while purchasing a product. Of course, customers are also very pleased with this…
Traditional retailers need to prioritize as soon as possible and find new ways to integrate e-commerce into their systems. One of the current trends is to turn the physical store into a showroom by reducing the space. In this way, new areas can be created to offer unique experiences that distinguish the brand from its competitors, rather than just show products.
In parallel with this, maximizing the opportunities created by technology companies such as Amazon and Google becomes an inevitable reality.
The Most Beautiful Corner of the Street in the New World: Social Media
In the past, the location of the shop was very critical for a business owner to gain customers. Owning a shop in areas with high human circulation was enough to be successful. But now the situation has changed. With the right Instagram account management and a quality content strategy, you can take everyone anywhere. Consider the new generation of burger restaurants and second-hand clothing stores. If it were 20 years ago, we would have agreed that they would all be doomed to fail because they did not offer their customers an adequate comfort zone. Now, with WOM (word of mouth marketing), which is known as the most effective marketing method, we instantly search for places we hear from our relatives and even places we have never seen on the street.
New Playground: Payless Shopping
One of the innovations that technology companies are trying to create in physical areas is the payless model. “Payless” payment systems, which have started to be used in the retail sector, can be successful in offering a new generation shopping experience to customers, as they eliminate waiting at the cash registers. This innovative system increases the overall efficiency of physical stores with its camera network and artificial intelligence algorithm. It also becomes a center of attraction for the customer base that follows innovations and seeks experience.
Amazon Go, one of the most popular examples of this, was launched in 2018.
The store met with customers in the city of Seattle, Washington state. In order to shop on Amazon Go, it is necessary to first download the Amazon Go application to smartphones and add the credit card to this application. Through the system, which works with cameras and motion sensors, customers can leave the store after adding products to their carts. Well, should this visionary move of Amazon, which is in mind as an e-commerce giant, scare traditional retailers? The answer is of course yes. This new customer experience is followed by examples such as Bingo Box in China. In other words, it seems that such technology-integrated examples will continue to emerge from the East to the West.
A recent report states that such automation systems will create 58 million job opportunities in the retail industry by 2022. Until a new platform/solution is found that can provide a completely seamless, seamless and secure solution for both retailers and consumers, at least for now, traditional shops will continue to exist.
In the transformation process of the retail industry, new laws and regulations are being prepared every day in order to make regulations in the eyes of the states for the transformation created by the companies known as GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) in the global competition, beyond the competition among the companies themselves. We see the last of this in the digital tax bill study initiated by the French Minister of Economy to ensure financial justice.
As a Starting Point, we develop and will continue to develop projects to adapt to the new world that is developing around us and to set its rules, to learn lessons from the experiences of the past for the world of the future, and to seize opportunities beyond finding solutions to problems. We believe that multifaceted and synergistic synergies in the retail industry in Turkey will produce successful models worldwide.
Footnote:
Of course, when Amazon is mentioned, if you don't first think of an image like the one in the photo above, "How to create a successful brand?" You will get the answer to your question. The real question for retailers is: “To follow the footsteps of one of the world's most important brands, or to stand by and/or prevent it by creating new tracks?”