5 Emerging Trends of Modern Retail

Emerging technologies and platforms will fundamentally transform the way buyers interact with their preferred merchants and brands. New battle lines are being drawn across various channels of retail and radical shift in buying pattern and preferences will exhibit pronounced shift from traditional standards.

5 trends that will contour retail in the immediate future:

1. Brands will increasingly represent a certain culture or ethos

Shopping, these days, are being increasingly driven by emotions than by sense of utility or the size of the buyer’s wallet. Millennials are gravitating towards brands that either demonstrate character or that seem to represent their personal attitude and preferences. Changing preferences and growing social consciousness has added newer dimensions and challenges to how brands represent and position themselves. More often than not brands are having to re-engineer their internal culture to align with and emanate a certain kind of external identity.

Funnily though brands and their ambassadors are increasingly becoming culture-coders-and-shapers, pushing consumers out of traditional strictures and shopping parameters. The consequences will only emerge with time, but businesses today proactively and decisively absorb and reflect the contemporary cultural buzz across the whole plethora of media – traditional and new age. Ostensibly more brands are influencing and shaping people’s choice, almost setting up wire-frames and stereotypes of a collective external cultural identity that ensures one’s integration with the modern world out there. Yet the brand themselves cannot be absolved of their views and responsibilities towards the emerging world views, values and cultural transformations.   

2. Quicker fulfillment & deliveries for online commerce

Most brands that have online presence, with similar product offerings and mixes, have started appearing largely homogeneous and are scampering to demonstrate differentiators. Recent studies indicate growing consumer impatience while waiting for product shipments. They are unwilling to wait more than 4 odd days now, down from nearly from a 6-day wait in 2012. Drones may only add the ‘Wow!’ element. In order to stay sharp and deliver distinct value to their customers, in the increasingly saturating e-commerce ecosystem, e-commerce platforms will have to comprehensively re-work their logistics and supply chain to ensure shorter wait for consumers. 

 3. Experiential merchandising on the rise

The millennials clearly are wary of the old model of retailing where businesses focused strictly on products getting sold! The millennials are increasingly demonstrating their affinity towards the experience rather than the product itself that they actually purchase, in-store or online. This trend of penchant for engaging and engrossing experiences while shopping is here to stay and grow, and it won’t just be served by re-modelling of stores or web pages. Technology will play a huge role in adding layers and astonishing experiences around tradition retail models. Advent and proliferation of social, mobile, analytics, cloud, virtual reality, IoT and AI will encourage brands to reinvent their merchandising strategies.

4. Subscription … subscription … subscription

Going by a McKinsey report, over 15% of internet shoppers signed up for subscriptions in 2017 and there are no signs of that going down anytime soon in the future. Curated products and assortments, in keeping with one’s past buying pattern and experiences only adds to the experiential retailing paradigm. If a consumer gets extended commercial benefits for signing up, along with assurance of deliveries of preferred merchandise on pre-defined frequencies, he would be more than happy to stay hooked as a loyal shopper, for long. This simmering pattern of curated personalized merchandised, delivered to the consumer’s door on a regular basis has started to look like a trend that has arrived to stay and will continue to gain momentum.   

5. Omni-Channel is here to stay

Proving detractors’ doom’s day predictions wrong, brick-and-mortar stores are not going anywhere, anytime soon. Their roles have transformed from just being the last mile point-of-sale counters to being an important cog in the much larger scheme of things as far as merchandising, interest generation, customer experience and branding is concerned. It is no more a dichotomy, rather an emerging truth that businesses will have to adopt, adapt to and grow across multiple channels.

Shoppers belonging to different decades have different shopping patterns, tastes, methods and choices. Whether they’re from the 70s, the 80s or the 90s, or whether they’re the Gen-X, Y, Z or the Millennials or the Baby Boomers – they all have their primary preferences of shopping methods and platforms. It has been observed that individual platforms and shopping experience have a direct and measurable impact on their buying pattern and decisions. The challenge for the retailers lie in being able to be seen and be actively present across platforms. At the same time, they need to create a framework of logistics, empowered by technology, to keep fulfillment streamlined for business across channels. For consumers, they seek a seamless shopping experience across various channels including but not limited to physical stores, kiosks, shop-in-shop, b2c websites, social media, marketplaces, etc. 

The evolving retail landscape entails preparedness for brands to be able to charm and capture the buyers’ imagination at one or multiple channels of sale, keeping them engaged throughout the cycle of their decision making and eventually monetising their preference at some point-of-sale, online or brick-and-mortar. Focus on post-sale service, across channels and quick resolution of consumer grievance, if any, are bound to hold retailers in good stead, in the long run. Embracing these emerging trends and the transforming pattern of preferences and leveraging rapidly evolving and fundamentally disruptive retail technology landscape, brands and businesses can keep their nose ahead in the blitzkrieg of upcoming brands and aspirational retail players.   

Conflicts are good !

Conflicts are good!

The world today is not as much worried about the next world war, that could potentially shove humanity towards extinction. It is far more distressed with the fall-outs of the hundreds of geographically dispersed, localised, smaller geo-political and military conflicts and skirmishes. These scuffles are far more complex, heterogeneous, multi-polar and unique where a ‘one-fits-all’ solution doesn’t work. No wonder minds go numb whenever we are informed about the next big conflict that’s brewing in our neighbourhood !

   

Now then, we are not here today to discuss about global conflict mitigation strategies. Let’s leave that bit for the elected governments, their well-oiled battalions and their astute national security advisors.

What about the conflicts in our daily lives? What about the conflicts that exist within the contour of our homes, our societies, our offices? How bad are they? Do they rob us of our efficiencies? Do the simmering struggles lead to burn-outs? Does the organisation’s productivity remain compromised? Is it a reality that they are inevitable and unavoidable? Is it like that throbbing pile in one’s rectal canal that never really goes away completely – there are just good and bad days? So much so that you eventually accept its presence and learn to live with it?

Although, the word ‘conflict’ itself is considered blasphemous, I always felt there’s more to it than what meets our eyes. When we think of the word ‘conflict’, we usually tend to picture shouting contests, uncontrolled rage, frosty stares or nerve-wracking and stressful hostilities at workplace. Have we not made conflict synonymous with disharmony, discord and hostility? Well, not necessarily. Outcome of conflicts are generally expected to be binary, resulting in a classic winner-looser scenario. But there actually are many more dimensions to this that we often conveniently ignore or simply fail to recognise. Conflicts can be both positive and productive.

No denying the fact that conflicts are never easy, but it can also provide well-deserved ammo to growth and change, which is good. Pain is rarely desirable, yet it is pain that can wake us up, can prepare us for eventualities and stimulate us to react to challenging circumstances. Conflict is almost like tea leaves – you never know how strong they are until they are subjected to boiling water !

I remember one of my much celebrated corporate bosses once insisted that some degree of organisational conflict is actually desirable and may not be completely dysfunctional. It sometimes could be indicative of commitment to organisational goals, as individuals get competitive in trying to come up with the best possible solution. That in turn can encourage challenge, heighten the individual stakeholders’ concern and responsiveness towards the issues, and lead to increase in productive effort. This sort of conflict is essential, in absence of which an organisation tends to lose its zing and eventually stagnates !

 

In case of an organisational conflict, results vary, largely depending upon how the individuals involved in it choose to approach it. If approached positively, conflicts can be stimulating and can improve quality of decisions. Conflicts and disagreements many a times lead to lateral thinking and contrarian solutions. They may test positions and personal beliefs but they almost always help foster fresh ideas, approaches and alternatives. Lending firmer push towards goals, conflicts can help sprout creativity and imaginativeness of groups and individuals in an organisation. The raw energy of conflicts, if channeled aptly, has the latent potential of amazing organisational metamorphosis.

While dealing with a conflict, competent and healthy individuals tend to seek more information to achieve resolution and not browbeat each other. Strong disagreements can trigger deeper deliberations and examinations. Pragmatic decisions are often made in presence of empirical data, that may not have been available in absence of a conflict. Though some of the emotions associated with conflicts may be negative in nature, yet it also speaks volumes about involvement and participation. A powerful and engaging argument within an organisation is more often than not better than bland apathy. Individuals may either argue to make up later or agree to disagree with each other ! The idea is to be able to disagree without being ‘disagreeable’.

Conflicts are not only about someone winning at the cost of another. It should rather be about how the organisation or a group or even a cause could benefit. Avoidance can rarely be good and at best serve a temporary purpose. Conscious effort to stay guarded in order to avoid conflict can restrain groups from active participation and may result in frustration. On the other hand, conflicts with the intent of undermining the interest of the other, or even aimed at a personal win at all cost is a template for disaster. A purely win-loss model of conflict raises complacency in ‘winners’ with little incentive to improve. While ‘losers’ tend become captives of their resentment. In such cases, instead of resolution, conflicts tend to gather mass and become stronger, often leading to anxiety and re-surfacing of unresolved conflicts. Conflicts however should be managed, before they degenerate into low grade verbal assaults, that can cause irreparable damage to individual egos and sensitivities.  

Conflict almost always gets a bad rap on the knuckles. We inevitably assume that conflict leads to collapse of a relationship. Many of us avoid conflict like plague, thinking that if we close our eyes to a potential encounter, it wouldn’t exist. But if managed effectively, organisational conflicts can serve as catalyst, rather than as a deterrent, towards organisational growth. The key is to develop a high level of individual and collective trust within the organisation and not take conflicts and assessments made during such exchanges personally. Then it becomes fairly easy to deal with inflated egos and personality clashes and work collectively towards resolution. It is always good to talk more and not less!  

8 Easy Ways To Become A Very Bad Leader

What happens, when as a leader you think you are the smartest of 'em all?

Well, you simply have managed to discover the brightest recipe for becoming a genuinely bad leader! Congratulations!

Let's unravel 8 well-guarded secrets of becoming an truly bad leader. Follow them and you would secure your place in posterity. 

1.      Criticise, criticise, criticise some more …

Use criticism as a tool of leadership, always doubt the abilities of the very team that you once handpicked – ensure that you lead a pack of demotivated, uninspired individuals, going through the paces, in an unproductive environment. If anything, it would certainly pump your ego, at the expense of making others feel small. Isn’t it a great incentive to start with?   

2.      Attention! At ease. Attention! At ease. Attention! At ease. Attention …  

To become a bad leader, you must assume that every single member of the unit will react in an identical way to your leadership style. It’s a cardinal mistake for individuals to believe that you’d recognize and adapt to the variety in strengths and expectations. They are all clones; flip-flop switches; you know them all so very well. They don’t need an awesome story to stay collectively committed towards a great vision. They are so wrong and you are so right!

     

3.      Spank them all to glory – their rear belongs to you …

You are a magician, trust me! Don’t believe in those naysayers who celebrate great leaders that swear by talent, competency and empowerment. You rightfully believe flogging can turn the floppiest of donkeys into powerful stallions! You are such a bad leader already and you can become worse by having them convinced over a period of time that they indeed are lucky to have their rear diligently assaulted as a price for their unquestioned faith and servitude. You are relentless in your pursuit of turning the mundane into the precious. You could soon become the first alchemist, that humanity would ever produce.

4.      Mistakes are criminal! Kill them with impunity …

A good leader encourages his team to commit mistakes and learn from them – that’s so utterly imprudent! To be a bad leader of substance, you must always ensure that no one ever dares to commit any mistake at all. None whatsoever. You may permit them to be flattered by allowing them fleeting moments of empowerment but decisively deceive them by meticulously shooting down every plan they make and every decision they take, using your rightful power of veto. You are the highness, only you are allowed to fail. For others it must be strictly forbidden.

5.      Everyone must believe there’s a plan, no one should question …

If you have to reach the echelons of bad leadership just demolish every alternative idea, annihilate every seeker of truth, decimate every query that you don’t have an answer to. No one should ever dare to question your grand vision. No one is quarter as good as you are, neither should they aspire to be so. You are the holy cow! Are they out of their mind to question the prudence of your prophetic vision? No one should ever dare to call your bluff, even if they know that you are spinning a web of lies, to satisfy your short-term goals. Every brain around you must believe in your infallibility.

6.      Never ever get rid of bad people …

Good leaders try and keep the plate clean – how reckless and foolhardy of them. Bias, bias and more bias. That’s how it should be. You need a coterie. You need a team that warms up to your weirdest of bull-crap. A bad leader must have enormous charisma – you must never have to deal with a ‘no’ from anyone around you. Good people will question you more often than not, seek recognition for competency, try to make decisions and base their actions on what they believe is good for the team in the long run. They are bad influence. Chuck them, good riddance! You must invest in bad people.

7.      Divide and rule … must make it your gospel truth!

Never ever allow a unit, to its truest philosophy or spirit! The more divided they are, more secure is your leadership. Trust me when I say that you can get away with murder, when you are an inspirational leader of a bunch of shady crabs! If they ever get to see merit in operating as a unit, a genuine team, your heist would come to an end. You must never allow that. Unity is disastrous for you. You have to become an iconic bad leader, the worse of ‘em all, you see. Of course, the secret is to be able to create a closed coterie of drooling suckers who would start salivating at the slightest scent of your irresistibly corrupt ideas. The rest should be taken to the cleaners!  

8.      Care to become an iconic bad leader? Be a bloody good student of bad leadership first …

Leadership streaks show way before you reach the helm. Never ever think your team achieving their individual goals will add up to your grand vision. Kill every personal dream. Shoot down every aspiration that raises its ugly head. Inspiring others is such a waste of time, just ask people to follow your infallible vision, assuming that you ever had one, other than making some quick personal gains. Never try to become better, you were already so damn good, what’s the point in wasting time? Never try to help people achieve greater competence, better relationships or even liberty of choices. Never give people their due credit, never – you don’t want anyone in your team to get too cocky for your comfort! Belittle their modesty as their weakness, trample their confidence, enslave them till their souls are completely robbed of any trace life or dream! You have then truly achieved what you set out to at the very start –a very bad leader!