Future of Retail and E-Commerce - Q1 2022

Q1 2022 | A promotional supplement distributed on behalf of Mediaplanet, which takes sole responsibility for its content

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Future of Retail and E-Commerce

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“Consumers will drive the future of ecommerce.”

Graeme Howe, Director, IMRG and Director, Ecommerce Expo

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“Retail is a responsive and fast-moving industry.”

William Bain, Head of Trade Policy, British Chambers of Commerce

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18/03/2022

16:04

6-8 June 2022 • ExCeL London

Europe’s Greatest Retail Event 200+ Mic-Drop Speakers

Tim Steiner OBE

Sian Keane

Elodie Perthuisot

Co-Founder & CEO

Chief People Officer

Executive Director E-Commerce, Data and Digital Transformation

The digital future of retail: how tech may rescue the high street Digital is the future of retail and as we move on from the pandemic, we must think more about the role tech and digital can play in the future of our high streets.

Frans Muller

Roland Palmer

CEO

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Matt Kelleher Group CIO

GM UK, Belgium, Netherlands & Nordics

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Natali Stojovic

Dr. Carsten Keller

JuE Wong

SVP, LEGO Retail

VP Direct-to-Consumer & Managing Director Connected Retail

CEO

+ 0 0 5 , 2 decision makers from retailers and brands, startups, tech companies, investors, real estate operators, media, analysts and more

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*These numbers are based on attendance at previous Shoptalk and Groceryshop events in the US and Europe and our planned marketing for Shoptalk Europe 2022.

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Innovative technologies Some portray the tech sector and the retail sector as competitors and that the success of one comes at the expense of the other. That is not true. In techUK’s recent paper, Technology and the Future of the High Street, we explored the number of ways retail can use digital tech to build a new business model for the high street in the wake of the pandemic. From developing an omnichannel approach to shopping, to creating more ways for remote workers to spend their time in stores, digital tech is at the core of innovative ideas being pursued by retailers.

Improving business and communities These changes won’t happen on their own. The pandemic has been detrimental for retailers and support is needed to help them invest in solutions that will improve their businesses as well as help local communities. There is a role for government to provide that support as well as for the tech sector to provide the digital solutions retailers need.

Finding the next steps To start with, expanding the remit of the Government’s ‘Help to Grow: Digital’ Scheme and allowing the Towns Fund and National Infrastructure Bank to support investment in digital

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Retailers and Brands Get Free Tickets & up to £500 Travel/ Hotel Reimbursement

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igital tech is now as essential to retail as good product placement, signage and friendly staff. From checking the opening hours of the store online to perusing products and managing stock, customers and retailers will use digital solutions for almost every interaction in and out of the store. The impact of the pandemic has accelerated this digital transition.

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From developing an omnichannel approach to shopping, to creating more ways for remote workers to spend their time in stores, digital tech is at the core of innovative ideas being pursued by retailers. services and infrastructure will incentivise this transformation of the high street.

The Government should also accelerate its review of business rates to give stores certainty over the future rates regime and drop plans for an online sales tax which would only penalise retailers who want to digitise, as well as see extra costs passed on to consumers.

If Government and industry can work together, we have the power to support the future of the UK’s retail sector. techUK is collecting thoughts and concerns of the technology industry to further digitise the high street to support its recovery. Interested parties should contact us through techuk.org.

WRITTEN BY Julian David CEO techUK

Contact information: uk.info@mediaplanet.com or +44 (0) 203 642 0737

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Industry Manager: Benedetta Marchesi benedetta.marchesi@mediaplanet.com Campaign Assistant: Mia Huelsbeck Head of Strategic Partnerships: Roz Boldy Managing Director: Alex Williams Head of Production: Kirsty Elliott Designer: Thomas Kent Design & Content Assistant: Aimee Rayment Digital Manager: Harvey O’Donnell Paid Media Strategist: Jonni Asfaha Social & Web Editor: Henry Phillips Digital Assistant: Carolina Galbraith Duarte All images supplied by Gettyimages, unless otherwise specified

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Buying into sustainability and its role in consumer decisions Businesses need to adapt to the changing demands of consumers whose buying habits are increasingly influenced by sustainability issues.

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rowing numbers of consumers are increasingly focused on the green credentials of brands they buy from and associate with.

Within this changing landscape, businesses, manufacturers and retailers must respond to keep pace with the shifting demands of increasingly savvy consumers.

INTERVIEW WITH Lauren DeVestern Partner, L.E.K. Consulting

INTERVIEW WITH Mark Boyd-Boland Partner, L.E.K. Consulting

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

Paid for by L.E.K. Consulting

Consumer attitudes Global management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting has been monitoring consumer attitudes towards sustainability, drawing them together in a landmark study, ‘Green Light for Sustainability – Shifting consumer perspectives across the globe’, from the organisation’s Sustainability Centre of Excellence.

Mark Boyd-Boland, an L.E.K. partner in London with a focus on retail and consumer brands, explains: “We were minded to conduct bespoke proprietary research to gain a critical understanding of what sustainability means to consumers in some of our core markets. Particularly, the journey consumers have been on and how sustainability is influencing their decision-making across a broad range of consumer activity.”

This involved establishing how important sustainability was to them and the extent to which they were prepared to change spending habits.

Key consumer types The study focused on the US, the UK and Australia, speaking to a sample size of nearly 3,000 that included nearly 1,000 people in each region with a cross-section of gender, age and income wealth.

The company defined four consumer types: Advocates, who care about sustainability and see it as integral to their identity; Learners, or recent converts to sustainability issues; Talkers, who understand sustainability but have a disconnect between caring and acting; and Stragglers, who are generally not yet as concerned and not yet changing their behaviours.

Boyd-Boland says the main point of engagement across the demographics is environmental practice and reducing carbon footprint, whilst younger people were also concerned about the societal aspects of a business and its working practices.

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Lifestyle changes and brand substitution Lauren DeVestern, from L.E.K.’s Boston office, has led much of the organisation’s work on consumer macro trends. “The data suggests that all age groups increasingly care about sustainability, however, younger consumers are more likely to actively change their behaviours; both findings give us confidence that the shift towards a more sustainable future will continue as younger consumers age.”

One aspect that surprised the researchers was the rate of consumers actively considering changing their shopping repertoire to be sustainable and the strength of conviction of people willing to allocate additional household spend to support this.

“Consumers are actively switching brands and products for sustainability reasons and they are doing so based on an increasing number of sources of information – in other words, they are becoming savvier,” she says. The degree to which consumer groups will actively switch away from a brand that has weaker sustainability credentials is also a risk for companies, according to the findings.

Business response What is critical is how businesses are responding to these changes, and this will form ongoing research. At this stage, DeVestern says very few companies are emerging as “beacons of best practice.”

“Some companies have been forward thinking and sustainability is even integral to their brand identity, but there are many brands that are not, and this really should be core to their strategy because of the consumers they serve,” she says.

“This requires an understanding of the consumers they serve and what they care about,” says DeVestern. Companies are even being “called out” when they do not fulfil sustainability pledges.

Brand implications The research found that groups of consumers will switch brands and pay more based on sustainability credentials.

This means that there needs to be some “bold consideration from retailers and brands” about where they want to be in 5-10 years’ time, says Boyd-Boland.

L.E.K. will utilise the findings to inform businesses about the direction of travel in terms of sustainability from the consumer perspective.

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WRITTEN BY Chris Daly CEO, Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)

What role does data play in the future of retail?

Data is marketers’ most valuable asset Data, trust and personalised experiences are all vital in building relationships with customers.

Like many others, the retail industry has become an increasingly data driven environment, particularly as more businesses migrated online due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

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s we enter a post-pandemic world, one of the biggest challenges for retailers will be knowing how to get data insights that offer real value to their business and bring them closer to customers. There are three key data challenges retail marketers will face and they must understand how to overcome them.

The most important challenge for marketers is building trust with consumers.

Understanding the customer experience Success for any retailer can only be achieved through a first-class customer service experience, but with the customer journey ever changing, many marketers are struggling to keep up. Businesses must understand that consumers are facing challenges that are shifting their priorities - from recovering from the pandemic, to the rising cost of living.

It is crucial for retailers to take advantage of both offline and online data to ensure they can provide hyperpersonalised shopping experiences that their customers enjoy and will want to experience again. Similarly, retail marketers should use data to ensure they are creating meaningful and relevant content and promotions for their customers, which tap into what they are really looking for.

Upskilling in data analysis With electronic point of sale systems and loyalty cards now commonplace, marketing departments are in danger of being swamped with data but unable to glean actionable insights. As data becomes ever more important, CMOs should consider building a marketing team that has the right balance of skills - seeing data analysts as part of the department is something we need to see more of.

Building trust with consumers Perhaps the most important challenge for marketers is building trust with consumers. After a turbulent few years, many people are re-evaluating what is important to them. Marketers need to ensure their brands do not get caught in the cull.

Some brands are doing this through loyalty programmes, for example the Tesco Clubcard. Not only does this foster a sense of community, but it also gathers important data to keep your loyal customers on side. This focus on brand loyalty will certainly grow, so marketers need to find a way to secure their target audience for the long term.

Keeping up with change Retail is a dynamically evolving industry and data will only become more integral to the way it works.

Businesses and marketers must be equipped with the right mix of technologies, data and team skills to be able to keep up with the fast pace of change.

WRITTEN BY Tim Bond Director of Insights, Data & Marketing Association (DMA)

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ata has always been an intrinsic part of marketing and effective customer engagement, but the increasingly connected digital world we live in has increased its importance immeasurably.

For me, I like the analogy of data as ‘the new soil’. It is something businesses must tend to, cultivate and maintain – if they do this well, the seeds will grow into successful long-term relationships with customers.

Data, trust and relevance Personalised customer experiences are the most effective.

But to create such experiences for customers, businesses must understand the inextricable link between ‘data, trust and relevance’. They must contact customers with the right opportunities, at the right time via the best medium.

Data and trust exist in tandem with one another. Trust encourages data sharing and meaningful data usage builds trust. Customers must know that their data is being used to provide them with an enhanced experience – if it is relevant and rewarding it will build trust and increase sharing opportunities in the future.

Since 2012, we have been tracking consumers attitudes to data sharing and privacy, as part of our ‘Data Privacy: What the Consumer Really Thinks’ research. The latest edition, released this month, marks a decade of significant change for both consumers and industry.

Data and trust exist in tandem with one another.

Trust encourages data sharing and meaningful data usage builds trust.

Increase in data sharing Over the 10 years of this study we have seen consumers’ willingness to share data increase. The percentage of consumers who believe the exchange of personal information is essential for the smooth running of modern society has increased from 38% in 2012 to 60% in 2022. However, consumers also still want to feel more control over their data and see more transparency in how it’s used. Both of which are key drivers of trust.

Trust in an organisation remains the most important factor that makes people willing to share their data, even beyond offers of discounts or free services. Trust is clearly a hygiene factor that businesses cannot operate without. Trust appears to be growing according to the latest figures from the ICO’s own ‘Information Rights Strategic Plan: Trust and Confidence’ research – but clearly there remains room for improvement too.

Offering personalised experiences It’s only with this willingness to share data and trust that marketers can then truly offer the personalised experiences many consumers demand – or even the insight to know which consumers don’t. According to our decade of research, it is this personalisation – if done correctly – that enhances the customer experience and helps to build sustainable relationships with customers.

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Linking customer loyalty and business growth Visibility of the customer journey, loyalty and data are critical components of maintaining growth and profitability within a business.

INTERVIEW WITH Andrew Stephenson Director of Marketing EMEA, Treasure Data

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

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reating customer loyalty and trust is an integral part of maintaining a healthy business. In turn, loyalty drives growth, sales and profits, but also nurtures closer and longer-lasting relationships with customers. Core to that is the value, and use, of data.

Data marketing expert Andrew Stephenson explains that the customer journey and loyalty are inextricably linked with data.

“Businesses need to make an impression that lasts,” he says. “To do this they need to understand their customers and interact with them based on their behaviours with - and what they want from the brand, to enable the best experience.

“This in turn breeds loyalty and essentially keeps them as a customer for longer and even helps acquire new customers.”

Increased visibility This, however, may be challenging, he adds, as businesses often do not have full visibility of the customer journey.

In addition, that journey may see customers switching between digital and physical interactions as they interact with a brand.

He says: “They will also use multiple screens in the same session, flitting between tablet, laptop and mobile – and expect the experience to be connected and relevant.

“Part of the secret is in capturing this digital footprint from the customer, deciphering the data signals and then using the insights intelligently to drive that personal-end to-end customer experience that is connected. Customers see that they are valued and, in turn, that will increase loyalty.”

Once a business has that visibility, it can make changes “to see what works to drive certain behaviours.”

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Encouraging customer loyalty The benefits of understanding the customer journey, and the data within that, are significant. “It enables businesses to have access to a lot more information, so they are able to understand their customers more deeply; from historical information through to real-time in-the-moment current behaviour, either in store or online.

“They can harness this to gauge what the customer needs from a brand and how they want to be interacted with and through which channel.”

He says this will drive customer loyalty, growth, revenue and profitability, “A business that uses its data more effectively has better relationships with its customers,” he says.

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Transforming customer experiences Treasure Data, founded in 2011, is an organisation which simplifies customer data management and help brands transform customer experiences by identifying, engaging and acquiring customers in a flexible, scalable and secure environment.

Its CDP (customer data platform) unifies customer data across silos.

Stephenson, who is Treasure Data’s marketing director, explains that his organisation plugs into a business ecosystem of other data, technology, marketing and finance tools, websites and harnessed data from every location in the business and pulls it into a single place.

“We then augment and segment the data and help businesses to analyse customer behaviour, such as identifying who they are, whether they have been instore, online, or on Facebook channels – and if they are one of your best customers.” That helps businesses make sense of data, he adds, and “send out the right messages to the right customers.”

Utilising data platforms One example has been its work with a virtual reality games publisher, which used the CDP (customer data platform) to acquire and utilise data to optimise the player experience.

“After implementing their customer data platform, they experienced 10 times more data, which was accessible for behavioural insights, revealing the importance of improving customer experiences which resulted in an increase in customer retention,” he says.

In another case, a large cosmetics maker added a digital component to its customer loyalty program to link instore and online behaviour to loyalty programmes and deliver personalised messaging.

By delivering a personalised customer experience, revenue and business increased, equating to a 20% increase in in-store revenue per loyalty program member, 11% increase in company revenues, and 38% growth in net income.

Find out more at treasuredata.com

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What does the future of ecommerce look like for retailers?

Businesses spend a lot of time agonising about the future of commerce, particularly in the digital field.

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common subject of conversation is can companies keep ahead of technological developments and how may it impact their future success. Staying ahead of the game is crucial.

WRITTEN BY Graeme Howe Director IMRG and Director, Ecommerce Expo

Securing future success Predicting future technologies is difficult, if not impossible, so in order for organisations to secure future successes, they must not chase technology. Knowing your customers, strong customer relationships and providing good customer service will present the best chance of ensuring growth. Technology needs to play a key role within this process, but there are other components which have a major impact.

Understanding your customers will play a key role in shaping your products.

Understanding what they want, when they want it and how to deliver it is key. The ability to interpret what that data tells you and acting on it requires the right team, technology and processes.

want to communicate via social media, then investing in that area makes sense.

Data from a 2021 IMRG survey of 1,000 shoppers illustrates how they want to receive information about the progress of their delivery. As it is such an important point of the experience – where missing a delivery can convert a positive experience into a negative one – SMS is the preferred channel for receiving them.

Importance of customer service A personalised customer experience should be embedded in the fabric of your organisation. Great customer service starts with a motivated and focused team and shouldn’t just be a means of sorting problems.

Good customer service should be present and consistent throughout the purchase process; from product discovery through to payment and fulfilment.

Getting to that point will mean organisations needs the right technology in place and the capability to use it effectively.

Consumers will drive the future of ecommerce; new ways of engaging with your customers will undoubtedly emerge as customer expectations develop and new technologies come into play. Ultimately, staying abreast of your customers’ needs and expectations will give your business the greatest chance of success and help drive growth. This is where technology can drive such success.

Great customer service starts with a motivated and focused team and shouldn’t just be a means of sorting problems.

Understanding consumer habits Having a clear customer strategy is the starting point, as consumers expectations change. Retailers must have the ability to identify these changes and quickly adapt.

Technological choices should facilitate your key objectives and should be an enabler. For example, if your customers

How new technology is making it easier to manage online payments Payment orchestration integrates multiple payment providers onto one platform, making it easier for retailers to manage online transactions and increase their conversion rates.

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ltimately, all retailers want to deliver a hassle-free buying experience for their customers, thereby reducing the number of failed payment transactions they experience and increasing their sales. However, making this happen is often easier said than done, says Alessandro Bocca, CEO of Axerve, Italy-based payments hub that has developed a platform for orchestrating payments across Europe and worldwide– and for a number of reasons.

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A solution for complex online payments “Online transactions have increased in complexity over the years,” Bocca explains. “The multiple steps needed to complete a card payment have become a challenge — just take customer authentication regulations, for instance — which increases the risk of payment declines, failed

authorisations and increased fees.”

Not to mention the fact that ecommerce customers are global so could be ordering from anywhere, and in any currency. To further complicate the picture, merchants often use multiple tools and payment platforms, which means their online payment systems are difficult to manage and it is hard to get meaningful insights.

The solution to these challenges is new easy-to-use technology which integrates different payment service providers on a single platform. Known as ‘payment orchestration’, it makes selling online and cross-border transactions easier by offering the right payment options for every country and gives merchants more independence from payment service providers.

Simple way to manage ecommerce payments “Payment orchestration connects

merchants to the entire payment ecosystem,” explains Bocca. “It’s flexible, so they can re-route to the best performing (or most costeffective) provider at the time of purchase and therefore increase their retail conversion rates. For example, for transactions made in GBP, a merchant can use payment provider X. For transactions made in Euros, they can use payment provider Y and so on.”

“The UK is a mature market for payment cards and payment service providers,” notes Bocca. So, for UK retailers — and particularly ones with customers in different international markets — orchestration offers real opportunities for higher conversion rates and lower fees. And because payment processes from multiple transactions are managed via a single platform, it optimises and defragments payment systems, offering automatic reconciliation of finances and better data visibility with immediate holistic reporting.

Awareness of payment orchestration ‘Payment orchestration’ is currently generating something of a buzz in certain retail circles — although, generally, Bocca thinks that awareness of the solution is still low. That might change, however. “The need for a platform like this was recognised years ago, but creating it took time,” he admits. “So, for years, payment orchestration was just a promise. Now it’s a reality.”

INTERVIEW WITH Alessandro Bocca CEO, Axerve

WRITTEN BY Tony Greenway

Read more at axerve.com /en

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Understanding the big benefits of effective digital asset management It’s critical that companies effectively curate and control their digital content with the right digital asset management systems.

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INTERVIEW WITH Erica Gunn Chief Marketing Officer, Canto

WRITTEN BY Tony Greenway

n the fast-paced world of e-commerce, it’s imperative to visually stand out from the retail crowd. That’s why organisations in the industry have vast troves of digital assets — everything from photos and videos to logos and documents — to help tell their story and drive their advertising strategy across multiple digital platforms.

Effective management and distribution of this material at scale can be a problem, however. “It’s become a real challenge in recent years,” says Erica Gunn, CMO of Canto, a company offering digital asset management solutions.

Different types of assets “Digital assets must be properly curated so that they can be easily found, used, approved and shared with the right people at the right time. This has become more complicated because retailers have so much digital material in their possession — thousands and thousands of assets in some cases — and because so much of that content has to be formatted differently for different digital platforms.”

Gunn divides digital assets into two categories. The first are ‘e-commerce assets’, such as product shots. If products are seasonal, these images can have a very short shelf life — so it’s important to have a mechanism in place to automatically take content out of circulation the minute it becomes outdated or discontinued.

Then there are ‘brand assets’, such as company logos, graphics and colour palettes (which are more constant) and brand images that may be used over a longer period.

Benefits of digital management platforms Gunn points out that ineffective management of both types of assets can create all kinds of risks. Featuring a product that’s no longer available may spark customer complains.

Editing a partner brand’s images without their permission can sour the relationship. Companies may even face legal action for violating copyright or publishing an image with an expired model release.

Using a digital asset management platform neutralises this risk by effectively centralising and organising digital libraries, managing digital rights and asset lifecycles, and speeding up and simplifying campaign rollouts.

Working from a common library also makes sharing material easier, improving collaboration with internal creative teams and external agencies and partners as well as driving productivity. Flexible user permissions allow brands to give collaborators access to everything they need (and nothing they don’t), and sharing portals provide a convenient way to share curated collections with external partners.

More and more companies are getting the message that digital asset management really matters. “Retailers who want their digital media and marketing presence to grow are realising that this is the best way to manage it,” says Gunn.

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Read more at go.canto.com/ DiscoverCantoDam

Text messages are helping drive sales growth The way businesses communicate with consumers is changing with text messaging tools opening the door to increased sales and customer happiness.

T INTERVIEW WITH Anup Khera GM and VP International, Attentive WRITTEN BY Sean Duke

he interactive people-driven experiences that come as a result of text messages that are sent between businesses and consumers are a form of conversation commerce. All of these messages have the potential to build on the relationship between a consumer and the brand they are interested in purchasing from. The messages are can contain limited time offers, new product announcements or be more transactional like sharing when a product has shipped.

Targeted, relevant communication method Text messaging is more targeted and relevant than email communications, and it’s a wanted channel, as opposed to email where consumers get a lot of emails, they never actually said they wanted. The key is the principle of consent, which is in contrast to emails where the average consumer receives hundreds of unsolicited emails per day and can be hard to reach.

It’s notable, for example, that in 2021, just 6% of emails were being clicked on, with text messaging proving at least 20 times more effective for reaching customers.

Benefits to companies of all sizes Attentive is a six-year old, US based, personalised mobile message company. It provides text-message based

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communication services for brands, predominantly in retail and e-commerce. Through its platform more than over 1 billion messages are sent and received each month. In 2021, the company began enabling UK brands to send text messages to their consumers.

Attentive uses text messages to facilitate communication between businesses and their customers. This might involve a marketing message, for example, or a real time message to a customer about a transaction. It is a service that can benefit an entrepreneur with a small DTC brand, or large public companies with billions in sales. Consumers only receive messages from brands that they have signed up for, unlike email or TV advertising.

Increase in online sales The UK has the second highest mobile commerce penetration of retail sales globally, making text messaging an easy and obvious way to reach engaged consumers. Getting stated with Attentive is quick and straightforward and customers can expect to drive approximately $55 for every $1 spent on the platform. In addition to increased revenue, brands benefit from sending their loyal customers messages they want, resulting in more engagement and increased lifetime value.

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WRITTEN BY William Bain Head of Trade Policy, British Chambers of Commerce

Seismic changes for retail as rules of trade shift

Action on business rates could help small retailers recover and grow

The world of retail is undergoing a huge transformation driven by consumer trends, logistics and global forces.

Small retail firms need the right support to get back on their feet and expand, we feel that tangible changes to the business rates system are a good place to start.

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n the past two years, retailers in the UK have had to adapt to significant headwinds from rising shipping costs, the introduction of the EU-UK trade deal and new friction in supply and sourcing chains.

Major EU trade challenges for retailers following Brexit The UK’s trade deal with Europe following Brexit has led to two big changes. Firstly, rules of origin now apply to UK-EU trade; goods imported from the rest of the world into the UK cannot be moved on to the EU without paying customs duties. This has led to a huge fall in the export of clothing and textiles to the EU. Secondly, import VAT must be paid on many goods valued above £150 when they arrive in the EU.

The biggest challenge ahead will be to make cross-border retail trade quicker, more secure and safer for consumers to pay for goods.

Smaller exporting retailers have been using the EU import-One Stop Shop (iOSS). But this requires, in many cases, a fiscal intermediary in the EU – a huge additional cost. Larger retailers adjusted their distribution networks.

Some have set up new warehouses in the EU to supply their European online customers. Others have made full use of customs warehousing and returned

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goods relief to reduce their exposure to customs duties on the re-export of goods.

Smaller businesses are suffering more These are not options so readily available to smaller retailers and many have given up on exporting to the EU. In a recent BCC survey of over 1,000 companies, 71% of exporters said the trade deal was not contributing to business growth whatsoever.

Free trade agreements The biggest challenge ahead will be to make cross-border retail trade quicker, more secure and safer for consumers to pay for goods. This depends on digital trade chapters in free trade agreements and the liberalisation of e-commerce at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The UK Department for International Trade (DIT) has recently concluded an ambitious Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore, digital trade provisions in its trade agreement with New Zealand and aims to emphasise this area in its negotiations with India, Canada and the Gulf Co-operation Council.

Retail is a responsive and fastmoving industry. Added to by the right policy choices between the UK and its trading partners plus greater efficiency of customs processes, it has every opportunity to lead the growth in global e-commerce in the next decade.

WRITTEN BY Martin McTague National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)

etail businesses have had an unreliable two years, faced with ever-changing restrictions, staff shortages and rising inflation. Confidence levels in the sector are much lower amongst small firms, with more than four in five small retail businesses now grappling with an increase in the cost of doing business.

Rates reform is long overdue On top of sky-high energy costs, business rates bills continue to be the thorn in the side of many small businesses, stifling their recovery and growth. Charged on most non-domestic properties and based purely on the value of that property rather than the amount of trade or level of income generated, the tax has long needed reform. Although we had hoped the fundamental review announced by the Government would address this, there remain sizeable challenges ahead for the business rates system.

Our research has shown three in five small businesses find paying business rates a challenge, while only a quarter of small firms believe the tax is ‘fair’. With such a high number of ‘bricks and mortar’ settings, small retail firms that are part of the fabric of our town centre communities, feel the brunt of this outdated tax.

Long term solutions are needed Suspending business rates bills for small high street firms during the height of the pandemic was a lifeline. However, longer term solutions must be found. Change is coming, but it is incremental, slow, and will require businesses to do more while getting relatively little in return.

Business rates are one of the biggest blocks on investment in the UK. If you want to add a new production line to a factory, you’ll pay half again in rates over the lifetime of that equipment. The Chancellor rightly recognised the danger this brought to investment in solar panels at the last budget and by introducing a one-year relief for other property investments. Extending that relief to a longer time period would be a gamechanger for small firms.

Measures like expanding Small Business Rate Relief to premises with a rateable value of £25,000, would relieve an additional 200,000 smaller firms from the tax.

We need to see tangible action from policymakers, incentivising growth and investment amongst small businesses, which will lead the way in the economic recovery.

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Four significant areas where shopping will change in 2022 The way shoppers interact with retailers is set to undergo significant changes throughout 2022.

A INTERVIEW WITH Tony Lorentzen Senior Vice President, Intelligent Engagement, Nuance

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

fter a challenging 2021 - characterised by disruption, transformation and the impact of the ongoing COVID pandemic - the way customers engage with retailers is set to become more complex. Industry expert Tony Lorentzen points to four key areas where retail customer engagement could change as the year progresses.

Hyper-personalisation Developments will be in “hyper-personalisation,” retailers embracing cloud-based digital contact centres, increased automation with more self-service channels and better fraud prevention.

“Retail brands have always been among the pioneers of personalised customer experiences,” explains Lorentzen. “However, the very idea of ‘personalised’ experiences really arrived in the public consciousness when retailers began tailoring product recommendations based on browsing and purchase histories.

“Today, retailers are getting better and better at collecting and applying customer and operational data and in 2022, we are going to see that result in some truly hyper-personalised experiences.” This will see the use of contextual data to anticipate customer needs and enable timely and time-saving interactions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be pivotal in these advances and help retailers take personalisation “to the next level.”

Digital contact centres Lorentzen, who is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intelligent Engagement Solutions at Nuance Communications, predicts that retailers will see now as the time for a strategic transformation toward cloud-based digital contact centres.

Lorentzen says: “It will provide retail brands with a golden opportunity to rethink and reshape operations and customer journeys and connect the dots between voice and digital engagement channels and between agent-led experiences and interactions with virtual assistants and interactive voice responses.

“It will also integrate with robotic process automation to complete end-to-end journeys without human intervention and bring a host of new customer engagement opportunities.”

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Increased automation Automation will allow agents to focus on helping customers with cases that “genuinely require a human touch” as retailers step up self-service channels to increase customer satisfaction.

“They will be using AI to create more human-like interactions, automate more sophisticated intents and streamline hand-offs to live agents – all to create

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flexibility and simplicity for consumers,” adds Lorentzen.

Nuance Communications, which is a leader in conversational AI innovations, has worked closely with companies during the pandemic to ensure they had what was needed to serve customers on digital channels without any disruption.

Live assist service In one example, it supported Currys PLC when lockdown saw stores shut. Currys trained more than 100 agents for its live assist service and deployed a conversational virtual assistant (VA) to continue serving customers. This saw digital interactions rise to 400,000 each month - three times the prelockdown level.

Meanwhile, a global fashion retailer implemented the Nuance intelligent engagement platform for virtual and live chat to manage increasing contact volumes, improve customer experience and automate selfservice options 24 hours a day across 13 major online countries including the US, UK, Sweden and Germany.

The solution meant consumers could engage with the virtual assistant and live chat agents directly from services like Google Maps or Google Search, for assistance through their shopping experience and to obtain real-time answers to inquiries such as item availability and online order tracking status.

Fraud fight Fraud surged during the pandemic, but Lorentzen expects retailers to take fraud prevention to a new level in 2022. Until recently, retailers have been reluctant to introduce stronger security checks because of the “friction” it introduces into the shopping experience. “But as we enter 2022, the strongest methods of customer authentication and fraud prevention can be applied in essentially friction-free ways,” he says.

“By layering advanced biometrics with other risk factors, a retailer can now identify a trusted customer, or a known fraudster.” Lorentzen says that at time of rapid and constant change,“Correctly anticipating the future can be a huge strategic advantage when it comes to retail customer experience.”

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WRITTEN BY Claire Bottle FCILT Chief Executive, UK Warehousing Association

Storage is expanding to accomodate growing e-commerce industry

How independent retailers can adjust with rising costs across the supply chain Rising fuel costs and supply chain price hikes are leading to inevitable price rises for retailers. However, there are steps that can be put in place for hard-pressed independents.

As the high street gives way to online shopping and warehouses become increasingly important, it seems inevitable that logistics will become the new retail.

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arehousing has never had it so good. Across the UK, everywhere you look, there is evidence of investment in a real-estate sector that used to be below the radar.

These huge buildings form the backbone of our economy; and the future looks brighter than ever for those involved in developing, leasing and operating them.

Volatile patterns of consumer demand, caused by the global pandemic, revealed the shortcomings of a ‘just in time’ approach to supply chain management. So, vendors of all kinds of goods – from groceries to fashion – are seeking more resilient business models and holding more stock.

Home delivery drivers have become doorstep brand ambassadors.

Online shopping and home deliveries have sky-rocketed Meanwhile, we’ve witnessed the explosive acceleration of home delivery. Ecommerce now accounts for over 36% of the retail market in the UK (up from 20% in 2019). Online giant, Amazon, has seen their UK revenue grow by an astonishing 82% from prepandemic levels. Traditional retailers have been challenged too, as shoppers who were once reluctant to buy from websites discovered the simplicity and convenience of online shopping.

Some stores were used for ad-hoc

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fulfilment during lockdown, others expanded click-and-collect services.

Increasingly, as activities once confined to the high street are pushed back up the supply-chain, retailers are investing in new warehouse capacity.

Warehouses are getting bigger Accordingly, the sector is growing.

Last year’s report from the UK Warehousing Association into the size and make-up of the UK warehousing market showed 32% growth since 2015, with buildings getting taller and bigger to meet increased demand for space.

There has also been a seismic shift in the profile of warehouse operators, from traditional bricks-and-mortar shops to online traders. Back in 2015, high street retailers occupied the most square footage, but now the leading occupiers are third party logistics service providers (known as 3PLs) and online retailers, whose warehouse occupancy has grown by an astonishing 614%.

Direct relationships with consumers 3PLs now have an unprecedented direct relationship with the consumer.

Home delivery drivers have become doorstep brand ambassadors, while warehouses are no longer simply storage and distribution points, but are providing value-added services, assembling, personalising and packaging products and crucially, managing returns. This change of role may herald diversification into recycling, upcycling and repairs as warehouses take on an even more central place in the circular economy.

WRITTEN BY Andrew Goodacre CEO, British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA)

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ith the soaring cost of energy prices, fuel and the supply chain, it’s no wonder that small independent businesses are going to be facing a huge rise in their bills over the coming months.

Already, we have been contacted by some business owners who have seen their bills rise from £4,000 a year to £11,000.

There must be some increase in prices for retailers due to the supply chain, but it is unlikely that they will be able to pass on the full inflation to their consumers.

Inflation of supply chain We are being told that supply chain inflation for many sectors is more than 10%. So, even if a retailer increases this by 5%, it means that they are still reducing margin by 5%. The real challenge for the smaller retailer is that they do not have the cash reserves to reduce margin too much and they are also well aware of the competition – both large stores and online.

Increases are inevitable, but the retailer still has to remain competitive.

We have calculated that if the average energy bill doubles, that is an additional £6,000 a year on average. Wage bills are going to go up another £6,000 with National Insurance and minimum wage increases in April and business rates will go up by about £6,000 on average then too. Those businesses, whether it is a shop, a pub or hairdresser, have got to find £20,000 in extra costs just to break even.

Increasing prices the right way There are a few things to consider when retailers do communicate these price increases to customers. They should make small price increases often rather than raising prices in one go.

They also need to identify their popular items – often described as known value items – and maintain prices on these, whilst increasing elsewhere. Customers know the prices of staple goods and often judge the shop’s value by the price of these items. Retailers should also increase prices in advance of buying supplies with rising costs – it is about pricing the product based on replacement cost rather than actual cost.

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Capturing the attention of online shoppers with retail media Impact on consumers Putting customer experience at the heart of your retail media ads is critical to success. “It leads to a bad experience if there is irrelevant ad clutter, but if search results and sponsored results are meaningful and relevant for what someone is looking for, it can actually be helpful to the consumer,” he says.

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Retail media is such a perfect advertising strategy, the consumer is doing a pretty specific search, they are primed for purchase.

Getting to the right customer at the right time remains one of the major challenges of e-commerce. But an increasing number of channels are supporting brands to do just that.

INTERVIEW WITH David Spitz CEO, ChannelAdvisor WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

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onsumer behaviour has transformed over the past two years. As shopping habits evolve and technology advances, brands and retailers have to grow more sophisticated in how they market and sell. In an increasingly competitive environment, digitally-savvy brands are utilising new channels to reach an ever-widening consumer audience.

To be successful in this new age of retail, brands must meet consumers where they want to shop. There is no question about it. If you want to get your products in front of purchaseready shoppers, employing a retail media strategy is crucial.

New emerging channels Industry expert David Spitz observes that the landscape has evolved from the well-known channels to many new and emerging ones. From Amazon, which has taken a lot of market share over the years, he says there is a “real proliferation of new marketplaces,” like the Allegro shopping site in Poland and Zalando, which has dominated the

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fashion vertical in Europe.

Following on from Amazon’s success with advertising programs, there has been an explosion of thirdparty marketplaces offering retail media advertising. In the past, digital marketing and marketplaces were distinct but he believes they have now “converged almost to a singularity.”

“Even if you are not a marketplace seller, you still want that ability to influence. So, these separate domains have really come together in an almost integrated fashion.”

Role of retail media Historically, retail media has been dominated by bottom-funnel sponsored search ads on retailers’ e-commerce websites. Recent emphasis on upper-funnel display and video ads to advertise across a broader scope of sites give a sense of what’s ahead with this trend.

Crucial for companies is ensuring they are visible when a consumer is at a critical point in the journey from inspiration to purchase. “That is the beauty of retail media in helping do this,” he says.

Creating e-commerce strategies Spitz is CEO of ChannelAdvisor, which is a platform that enables brands and retailers to better execute against their multichannel e-commerce strategies within a single platform. “Our mission is to connect and optimise the world’s commerce.

We are an integration platform that helps brands and retailers connect to all the different places where consumers shop online. We offer this globally on both a managed-service and self-service basis for thousands of brands and retailers,” he says.

“There are many channels out there that consumers use to find and purchase products and it is our job to help our customers to meet consumers wherever they are shopping.

“Retail media is such a perfect advertising strategy, the consumer is doing a pretty specific search, they are primed for purchase, they are right there, they know what they are looking for and if you have something relevant to say, that can be a very effective place to say it.”

Next-generation internet Many brands, he says, are still very early in the e-commerce lifecycle.

“The progress of digital isn’t slowing down, if anything it may speed up further. As a brand, keep agile, be curious about new innovations, and most of all, remember to place your consumer at the heart of what you’re doing and you should reap the rewards,” concludes Spitz.

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Our software constantly checks all products and, if needed, makes price changes in their own platform.

How dynamic pricing is changing the buying landscape Dynamic pricing is a concept that has benefits for both retailers and consumers in the online marketplace.

INTERVIEW WITH Sander Roose Founder and CEO, Omnia Retail WRITTEN BY Tegan Scales WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

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ith the rapid growth of e-commerce over the last decade, as well as the intricate blend of omnichannel retail, the competitiveness amongst retailers and brands to remain a cut above the fray has only gotten thicker. Since 2010, global e-commerce sales have grown by 800%, showing not only the massive shift in how consumers are shopping, but also how traditional retailers and brands are evolving to stay ahead.

Understanding dynamic pricing With the e-commerce market becoming more and more saturated, a question arises: What can retailers and brands do to prioritise their time, increase profit, become more strategic, while meeting consumer demands?

This is where Sander Roose comes in, the founder and CEO of Omnia Retail, a specialist in pricing software solutions, who first tackled this question when introducing the concept of dynamic pricing to retailers and brands a decade ago.

Through his conversations with them, a common theme was struck: Too much time is spent on updating product pricing and, even so, the data used to concoct these prices was not sound. Retailers were losing money because of slow and incorrect pricing practices.

“This is the problem we started solving for retailers with dynamic

pricing software,” says Roose.

He adds that since then, it has been eye-opening in the best way possible to see how the need for dynamic pricing has grown.

“Ten years ago, dynamic pricing was only relevant for the most mature online categories, such as consumer electronics. As categories became more mature online, dynamic pricing became crucial to those categories too. Nowadays we serve retailers in virtually all categories such as sports, beauty, DIY, furniture and more.”

Data, data and more data According to Roose, the defining element of Omnia’s pricing software is its data. “We have the infrastructure to gather market data and prices of competitors, but also internal data such as stock levels, purchase prices and commercial strategy.”

As a product itself, dynamic pricing also offers price elasticity insights, the ability to export and analyse raw pricing data, and the capacity to create company-wide pricing policies.

Not only is dynamic pricing datadriven, but it is also intuitive and highly customisable. “Our software constantly checks all products and, if needed, makes price changes in their own platform,” says Roose. From a consumer’s perspective, it may seem like dynamic pricing is geared towards the goals of the retailer and not necessarily those of the shopper, which is typically to get the fairest and most honest price for a product or service.

However, Roose refutes this by suggesting instead that this technology is making markets more efficient and there is less margin for retailers to grossly inflate their prices without recourse. “There is no benefit for a retailer to overcharge as the implicit assumption is that prices are very transparent. To do that will hurt their sales, so it is good for the consumer and good for the retailer,” he says.

The direct-to-consumer shift By consistently monitoring and analysing retail trends, Omnia notes that the growth in e-commerce has instigated another trend: The rise of direct-to-consumer sales.

Traditionally, brands would sell their stock to retailers and rely on the reach, marketing strategies and financial power of the retailer to make sales. Roose says that, today, brands are skipping the retailer route by selling directly to consumers, and this is requiring them to use pricing strategies that are competitive.

As a SaaS (software as a service) company that was introducing a product very few knew much about a decade ago, Omnia has been able to penetrate the retail sector quite successfully, as multiple European and global brands like Samsung, HP, Philips Electronics, bol.com, Grohe and more have implemented their data, software and strategies. In fact, going forward, Roose doesn’t see the industry without it: “Retailers need these kinds of tools in the market to survive.”

Find out more at omniaretail.com

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