SUPPLIER SUMMIT
THE FUTURE IS…
..INDEPENDENT? O
Retail futurologist Howard Saunders took to the stage at the NBG Supplier Summit to talk about whether retail is dead. Here are some of the things that delegates learned.
nce upon a time, the UK was described as a nation of shop-keepers but shopping and spending habits here have changed as they have throughout the world. The good news is that the customers have not disappeared, they just want
to be dealt with differently. Although much of Saunders experience is in consumer retail, there was enough in his presentation to relate to the independent businesses in the room and their suppliers.
Among the take-away points from Saunders’ presentation were: 1. We are living through the era of disruption, where everything we thought we knew about buying and selling to each other has been turned on its head.
2. You know something seismic is happening in retail, when a massive brand like L’Oréal has fewer fans on social media than a make-up artist called James Charles has followers on You Tube.
3. Automation is taking over in many sectors. A report from Mckinsey estimated that 800m jobs will be lost to robots by 2030. That’s just 10 years’ time.
4. We live our lives via our smartphones which have put us at the centre of our own little universe.
5. 10 years ago, if we felt like coffee, we went out and bought a coffee. Now, we tend to go for an artisan coffee shop, made by a specialist barista and we pay through the nose for it.
6.
winning out over Goliath. Ask yourselves who Starbucks is afraid of? Is it Costa? Is it Caffé Nero? No, it’s the independent barista. Who is the real competitor for Cadburys? Is it Nestle? No, it’s the small, local chocolate maker at the farmer’s market.
7. Some big brands have cottoned on to this: Samsung’s new venue in Kings Cross proudly advertises itself as ‘Not a shop’ but an experience.
8. Brands know they need to get into our bloodstream. They need us to fall in love with them.
9. You have to engage with your customers. They don’t want to be just sold stuff anymore. They want the experience. 10. Customers these days are not the same as the customers you had 10 years ago. They require you to interact with them differently.
All this, Saunders said, plays into the hands of independent businesses. “More and more of our lives will become lubricated by algorithms and data. Our phones will manage our lives for us, but the more immersed we become in the digital age, the more
humanity we will want from the real world. It’s easy to be seduced by technology and say that the reason things aren’t working is because all the technology costs too much and your business can’t afford to invest in iPads and digital experiences.”
businesses like yours need to do is reach out and touch your customers. They aren’t the same as they were 10 years ago. The know they are the centre of their own universes so you have to reach out and respect that, engage with them and make them feel important. That is the key to businesses in the future.”
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