I am grateful for the opportunity to spend two days the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week – along with 170,000 other attendees.
Aside from the funky gadgets you may have seen on the TV news, CES was a showcase of innovation for and about business, especially small business.
Wow! What a show. Small business was represented everywhere, in almost every hall we visited. Small business in the form of start ups, products that appeal to our customers and entrepreneurial flair from bg businesses seeking to reset their paths for the new economy.
Change was evident in every hall, in every aisle. Change in products, how to discover shoppers, how to serve shoppers, hurt to fulfil orders and how to plan for the future.
The gap between technology and everyday got narrower with this CES show. There is no avoiding it in business or at home.
Now more than ever, borders between retail channels are dissolving. Whereas in the past retailers remained focused on their specialty channel, that is not the case today.
Take fitness tracking. In the past these devices, such as Fitbit, were sold in electronics stores. Now, the trackers and add-ons for trackers are pitched to pet shops, jewellers, bike shops, garden centres as well as all sorts of other businesses.
Take iPads and tablet computers generally. We saw these for sure but we also saw several suppliers of funky stationery related items targeting the users of these tablets. Fashion designers are all over this space.
As a regular CES attendee, I’d call 2016 the year of the pet. There were technology solutions for pets and pet owners. They covered, pet care, pet fitness, pet fun, pet travel, pet grooming and other areas. App connected and delivering a technology solution at a level not seen before.
We also saw a merging of the connected home and pet engagement when you are out of the home. This is a rapidly moving and exciting space with some very cool innovation heading our way.
We saw 3D printed bikes, portable bikes, devices for bikes, devices for bike riders, digitally enabled clothing … all sorts of products we expect bike retailers to be selling as connectivity evolves.
From a newsagency specific perspective, there was one stand with artwork of a magazine newsstand as a backdrop for pitching technology that replaces magazines. I thought: oh, okay.
Old brands such as Kodak, Polaroid, Lego and Meccano had stands that spoke to the importance of being nimble in today’s marketplace. They are leveraging consumer trust for their brands and pitching new, tech-centric, products serving today’s connected and socially active world.
Indeed, what Kodak, Polaroid and Meccano are doing is fascinating and reflective of what newsagents need to do – leverage the trust and legacy of the brand to bring shoppers to opportunities that are more relevant to today. The US Postal Service is doing this. See the photo below. Their stand this year was a terrific evolution from the stand they had at CES last year.
It would be easy to see all this and say it is too hard to compete in such a rapidly moving world, to say we do not have the resources necessary to keep up. However, this is essential if we are to have a future. I am certain plenty of newsagents can do this, embrace change by evolving their businesses considerably outside the boundaries that were considered definitional for newsagents. Those boundaries do not exist any more.
I guess if I was to summarise takeaways, the top five would be:
- Change, disruption, is the new normal: embrace it, chase it.
- Small is beautiful. Being the best locally is more important them being big.
- Do not be restricted by the history of your retail niche in considering what to sell.
- Understanding new technology is critical to the success of every business.
- There are more trends that rise faster become crowded out sooner and are discarded earlier than in the past. Time has been compressed, again.
One of the most enjoyable places at CES was the start-up hall at the Sands Convention Centre. There we saw exciting start up businesses, often one-man-band businesses. Struggling to be heard. making a pitch and hoping for funding. We loved talking with them and soaking up their excitement for creating something new.
There were many takeaways beyond these brief notes. I’ll reflect on these within the Tower Systems and newsXpress newsagency communities in which I serve through this year.
Here are some photos from CES we thought may interest newsagents. And yes, Elvis lives!
