Among all industries that have faced some sort of disruption, few have had it worse than organized retail. 125- year old once- giant Sears has filed for bankruptcy. Several stores of other top players such as Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Kmart and Toys R Us keep shutting down on regular basis. Even those, somewhat stemming this tide are the ones that are playing on competitive pricing, such as- Marshalls or T.J. Maxx. This has also led to a decline in fortunes for the large consumer brands that sold majority of their products from such stores. Proctor & Gamble is one such prominent sufferer, with several of its brands such as Tide, Pampers and Gillette facing a downturn in sales. Business intelligence provided by Consultancy Catalina has also affirmed that 90% of the top 100 brands had all lost market share. A lot of this can be attributed to the rise in online shopping. For retailers, digital marketing is now a highly attractive proposition, as evidenced by Harry’s huge Instagram following. It also gives them massive reach as opposed to the retail store which can only reach out to its particular neighbourhood. In order to remain relevant, the traditional giants’ scale must be combined with the fleet- footedness of the new comers. A perfect example of this may be cited on how Xiaomi incubated about 55 startups.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/12/what-big-consumer-brands-can-do-to-compete-in-a-digital-economy

Uploaded Date:29 December 2018