Shoptalk brings together more than 15,000 retail professionals for four days to talk all things retail and to contemplate the future.
This year, Shoptalk has been extraordinary, insightful, challenging and encouraging.
On the last day, the team I was here with shot a brief video outlining key takeaways. However, this shot video does not do justice to the valuable content and learnings. These will be obvious over the rest of this year and into 2020.
Here is the video we shot:
Good stuff and certainly agree with Instagram comment.
Interesting that this conference was mainly about the big retailers, who for all their bright ideas, are suffering as much as anyone with their store closures, bankruptcies, CVA’s. They talk the good talk but most are not fighting the good fight.
For us independents I see the shopping experience and point of difference as being key. The shop itself has to stand out. That means moving away from brands that every Tome Dick and Harry sells, especially if the big chains are stocking. The basic rule for me is, if KMart, Target, Woollies, Coles stock it … find something else.
You can put as much effort into social media as you like, but if the products are the same and the shop looks boring , you are on a slow death spiral.
Colin I have seen some big retailers in the US making extraordinary moves, ground breaking. I say this based on hearing about it at a conference and then visiting one or two of the stores to see first-hand what they are doing. I was in one today in LA, a department store business, that is changing the game entirely. It may work. It may not. That is what we have to do in retail today.
We tend not to hear about this in Australia. More n this soon.
Mark,
In the USA, quote
“During the first weeks of 2019, retailers shut down 23% more stores than they did at the start of 2018, according to Coresight Research.”
Same trend in Europe and latest figures show Australia succumbing to same trend with same symptoms. High employment, low gig economy wages.
The brights boys will tell you they have an answer, the facts say otherwise,
There is no doubt that retail is in transition. There will be winners and losers from this. Not all retailers will lose. Some of the innovation I have seen by big retailers is extraordinary, unexpected … exciting. Two fo the most interesting to me said we were not sure if they had the answer but here is what we are trying. It was fascinating.