If you have been following the news for the past 12 – 18 months, this shouldn’t come across as a surprise. Retailers are shutting its brick-and-mortar doors – dropping like flies. Tens of thousands of hardworking people are left without jobs – some have dedicated their entire career to retail. The future is bleak for retailers…or is there still a chance?
According to First Data, they saw retail spending rise 1.6% in the first quarter. So are some retailers handling this shift better than others? How are they doing it? We will get to that later in this article.
HISTORY’S VICIOUS CYCLE
What we are seeing is just the beginning in our era. History has shown us that shifts like this happen frequently and is agnostic of industry. Businesses strive for efficiency through innovation to drive performance. And if that is not achieved, that business becomes a victim of progress only to be replaced by another or driven out of existence.
The auto industry when robots were introduced, print newspaper business when content starting showing up on all over the internet for free, and the most prevalent in our times online commerce are just a few examples where innovation caused a seismic business model shift and affected the labor market.
IT’S AMAZON’S FAULT…REALLY?
Amazon has successfully permeate our daily life. It has been part of conversations, news reports, social debates and blamed for the demise of retailers of various sizes. On the surface, it is undeniable that Amazon has been slowly and surely expanding its presence and not being bashful about their plans for total customer life cycle domination.
From Amazon’s humble beginnings reselling books to a multi-channel behemoth – makes them an easy target when things go south.
But Jeff Bezo’s strategy is very consistent based on Amazon’s Principles.
Other successful companies like The Dollar Shave Club or Bonobos or Ring has done the same. While none of the aforementioned were blamed for putting other businesses out to dry – they are all successful and may have some things in common. It’s not their lavish offices, or unlimited snacks or free lunches.
It’s their realization to check themselves, evolve, adapt – instead of wasting time blaming the competition.
They all execute and evolve in their markets with clear (proof is in the pudding) objectives and have done a solid job understanding consumers’ behavior, wants, and needs.
THINK ABOUT THIS…
Let’s say you run a local Italian food restaurant. Your establishment has been around for three generations. Families frequent your place because you have established your restaurant as the go-to place for the best Italian food in town.
Everything seem to be chugging along and you can’t wait to pass the restaurant to the fourth generation!
Then one day, while driving home you see a sign. A new Italian restaurant chain is opening next month!
You feel violated…you panic. Your mind races at 100 m.p.h. and you start to worry about the future of your restaurant from the new competition. You get home, drink a glass of whiskey and go to bed. For the next few weeks you forget about it as you drive by the same “Opening Soon” sign ever day you because business was still humming along nicely. You feel confident about your business.
Six months after the restaurant chain opened, you notice that sales have declined, but you chalk it up “new restaurant” effect. People are just trying out the new place and business will eventually rebound.
But you noticed something else a few months later. A few regular faces are not coming in as often as they once did before.
So you decided to finally check out the competition. You invited a few friends and went for dinner at the new restaurant. You were seated and immediately noticed the difference in what they offered on their menu, the decor was delightful, and there were daily specials Mon-Fri.
You thought of changing your menu but did not because you’ve always done it that way and customers love the current menu. You thought about sprucing up the place but did not do it because it would cost you to renovate. Then you thought you would run promotions to bring customers back, but did not because you did not want to sacrifice your profits.
Two years later, you wished you had made those changes and investment into your restaurant. Your business shut down.
At the end you did nothing, but waited and expected your once regular customers to come back on their own accord. You couldn’t have been more mistaken.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
You see, a thriving business can fail but not always because a competitor merely exist.
Competition won’t go away – you can’t do anything about that. Someone better will always come along whether it’s a better service, better software, or better price. Whatever it may be, your focus shouldn’t be on what they are doing, but rather how you are handling it within your business.
There are many elements within your control that can give you better shot at thwarting or co-existing with your competitor.
DON’T BLAME THE COMPETITION. CHECK YOURSELF.
When you look at businesses that fail, there is frequently a trail of bad decisions that lead up to it.
But I would challenge the notion of not blaming the proverbial competition. The only competitor to your business is…YOU. You are your worse enemy. From small businesses to major corporations. There are no exceptions.
RETHINK. Here are a three (3) notions worth challenging.
I won’t cover the tactics, there are already 100’s of articles talking about better campaign management, improve conversions, get on social, etc…you can the point.
I do want to address the qualitative things occurring in many organizations. (I don’t have to be clairvoyant to know this)
We’ve Always Done It This Way – One of the most TOXIC mentality that can lead your company down the path of eventual demise. Leaders who often think this way, for whatever reason, suffocates the organization and cripple team morale. It’s less about how old the company is, but rather the lack of vision of the management team and complacency.
If your business is faced with tough competition and market changes, this is not how you want to think.
Put your business model on its head, turn things upside down, challenge status quo, challenge tradition – nothing is sacred. Your business is at stake.
Your competition does not dictate how you think. They do not possess (yet) the power of mind-control…or do they?
It Takes a Lot of Resource to Upgrade Our Systems – And the alternative is? At Fullmoon, we have heard our fair share from clients about the need to upgrade their eCommerce platforms, but just do not have the resources to get it done. A reliable back-end/front-end for your eCommerce business should never be debatable. A clunky system can hold your company back from delivering a delightful customer experience. And happy customers means more sales which means thriving business.
Spend time worrying about how to build the best possible platform, instead of worrying how well your competitor’s platform might be. That’s speculation – so don’t waste another minute pondering about something you have absolutely no insight to.
Your competitor is not stopping you from upgrading your systems. But just in case they did…well that would be a criminal act!
Your Culture Sucks – Do you truly allow your employees to voice their feedback in a non-threatening environment? Do you have abusive managers leading teams? Are sales people working against or with each other?
I was part of a team that reported to a verbally and emotional abusive manager many years ago. You could hear our boss yell at someone through closed office doors. Yet management did not do anything about it. By the time they decided to, the damage was done. Team members already made the decision to leave the company. It created an unpleasant work culture.
Company leaders must have a pulse on their company’s culture and if teams and individuals share similar sentiment. Easier said than done, yes. But the effort pays gigantic dividends. Don’t be blinded by the smiling faces during company parties. Employees enjoying themselves just mean they are human.
Your culture is a critical component in setting the tone for conflict resolution, employee happiness, and client success. It’s a trickle down effect.
CONCLUSION
I’m not here to tell you how to manage your organization. I also know there are many more topics to discuss than this article can cover.
If there is anything to take away from this, it’s simply CHECK YOURSELF.
Blaming the “Competition” is lame. Spend your time doing something about it instead. Take action that will improve your team, your business, and your sales.
