STORES Convention Daily - 2018 Big Show Day 2 - 26

2018 MONDAY

Forward
Continued from page 24

customers a variety of wines customized
to their palate.
Another way to connect with today's
consumer: television. Americans have returned to the couch, absorbed in television
shows and proudly sharing their bingewatching inclination. Retailers need to find
a way to connect and capitalize.
Strange bedfellows? Not anymore.
Partnerships and collaboration are the
stuff alternative business models are
made of.

Connecting with consumers today can
mean teasing out new connections inside
traditional business models. Seeing unexpected collaborations can spark excitement
and create energy at a time when relationships have begun to grow stale. Think
Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon, IKEA
and Task Rabbit.
Designer collaborations will always be
important but when the partnership is truly
unexpected, the outcome can be as well.
Witness supermodel Heidi Klum teaming
up with supermarket chain Lidl to create a
capsule collection, marking the first time
she has put her name on a clothing line.
The collection, consisting of 18 core pieces
and priced in line with Lidl's value mindset,

Photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Ozgur Coskun.

appeals to time-starved shoppers who jump
at the chance to scoop up a fashion item
along with a quart of ice cream.
This fall, Ace Hardware announced it
had acquired a majority stake in ecommerce
startup The Grommet, the company behind

ID #38450

ID #77864

Third visit to the store in a month

Shoplifted twice in six months

ID #15575

First time shopper

ID #36525

Shopped in our other
location last month

Virtual Line Up
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Know when a previous troublemaker enters your store
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Change the way you observe your customers. Call 631.686.2900
or email sales@clickitinc.com to get started right away.

Visit us at the NRF Big Show Booth #2135

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An Unmatched Depth of Perspective

11/21/17 4:00 PM
11/28/17 11:20 PM

more than 2,500 innovative consumer
products including FitBit, OtterBox and
SodaStream. A collaborative partnership
was forged in 2016, and in just a short time
the helpful hardware folks determined that
Grommet customers visited its stores over
50 percent more often than the average Ace
Rewards customer and spent almost three
times as much.
Bottom line: Retailers need to explore
creative collaborations and strategic partnerships to drive consumer relevancy and
business viability. It's imperative in the
year ahead.

Here are a few other
things to keep an eye on:
❖
Commercial businesses are finding
new types of revenue models that
solve pain points in the customer
experience, enabled by innovative
use of technology and the Internet
of Things. DSW offering shoe rental
and Volvo's subscription service are
just the tip of the iceberg.
❖
Like it or not, digital currency is
coming; news of global banking
giant JPMorgan Chase buying up
bitcoin-bullish payment network
WePay in a rare fintech acquisition
could be an important turning point.
❖
3D printing is quietly growing and
has the potential to shake retail's
foundation. McKinsey predicts
that additive manufacturing could
have an economic impact of $550
billion annually by 2025. Retailers
shouldn't wait until consumers can
print their own jeans at home to pay
attention.
❖
Consumers are spending on health
and wellness. Retailers who help
consumers on their journey to peak
physical, mental and emotional
performance are headed in the right
direction.
❖
Cybersecurity monitoring, detection and remediation will top retail
initiatives in 2018. Vendor security,
proven to be a vulnerability, has
reached critical status. All need to
guard against new attacks aimed
at the automation communications
layer that are likely to emerge as
more consumers use home automation/AI assistants such as Amazon
Echo and Google Home.
❖
IoT has already refined how businesses operate and people interact
with one another. Predictions call
for IoT to reach a staggering 75 billion devices by 2025. Retailers will
continue to explore ways to use IoT
in the coming year for everything
from keeping better tabs on their
inventory to managing losses from
theft and connecting with shoppers.

http://www.iStockphoto.com/Ozgur http://www.clickitinc.com

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