Today’s retail landscape is becoming an increasingly complicated and competitive battlefield. In practically every retail sector, brands are struggling to keep up with the numerous evolving factors.
Take, for instance, the struggle of capturing attention. How does a retail brand go about engaging an audience base that is constantly exposed to an overload of content? And how does it go beyond one-time buys to build continuous customer loyalty? No longer can businesses simply aim to get products off their shelves; they must now compete against all the attention-grabbing stimuli out there as well.
This, in turn, brings forward the complication posed by evolving sales channels and customer values. As far as the former is concerned, winning buyers’ attention demands a thorough command of virtual marketplaces and new-age supply chains. And on the topic of customer satisfaction, appeasing them while improving margins requires a deep understanding of price perception.
Even then, the greatest obstacle in the retail brand war is likely external. On top of the pre-existing competition, private labels and counterfeiters have risen to be considerable players in this game. Private labels are vying for more and more market share, and counterfeiters are often exploiting the Grey market to undermine established prices.
Suffice it to say: Moving forward into 2020 won’t be an easy thing. But success can certainly be found, and it starts with leveraging the business growth mindset.
A committed growth-first approach requires top-to-bottom alignment
Only after you have organizational alignment around your growth-first strategy can you put yourself in a prime position to win over customers, lead the pack of competitors, and mitigate the effects of harmful entities.
First off, you need to achieve a cohesive, team-wide buy-in to your long-term company goals as it is your foundation for the growth of your retail brand. This alignment process enables all initiatives to directly build upon your long-term plan.
Then, it’s important to determine the specific growth objectives for each department across the company. Since the goals of, say, the marketing and engineering teams typically vary quite drastically, the solutions they implement should be distinctly tailored.
Part of doing so lies in managing the balance between the present and future. Certain resources, of course, need to be allocated to improving present performance. Many businesses, however, fail to extend their focus beyond the short-term because prognosticating into the future is considerably more difficult – whether in regards to market trends or customer needs.
Planning for the future inherently carries a level of risk with it… But the key to growth isn’t avoiding risk. Rather, it’s being wise and efficient with decisions of risk to minimize potential losses and optimize possible gains.
The 4 growth avenues all digital brands must explore
The road to creating profitable consumer buying experiences is paved by the following four strategies. In tandem, these capabilities will boost your growth and embolden your strategic vision with the ability to take intelligent risks that pay off in dividends.
Agile, competitive pricing. A careful pricing strategy is one that grasps industry trends and then shifts to satisfy the market, customer, and the time of year. This is where price image comes into play: You want to capitalize on the many nuanced aspects that define an item’s value. Doing so requires dynamic pricing tools such as:
- A 360° price optimization solution which provides data-backed insights and suggestions on product pricing
- An agile, customizable price match API which makes smart industry-wide item comparisons in real-time and
Global price monitoring. Simply put: If you aren’t closely monitoring your resellers, you open yourself up to loss of sales due to counterfeit products and pricing violations. In turn, the integrity of your prices will take a hit and your retail brand’s reputation will likely suffer.
- With Intelligence Node’s Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) monitoring, you can ensure compliance with your pricing policies… And protect your company’s legitimacy and profits.
Dynamic visibility of market movements. You want a constant finger on the pulse of both the industry and other notable players in the game. The more data you have on market demand, product search and popularity, and competitor stock movements, the more you can analyze it to your benefit.
- Introducing the Incompetitor® solution: Its pricing automation and real-time competition monitoring are but two of our savvy features that track market position.
Targeted cross-channel promotions. It’s one thing to have the data; it’s another altogether to apply it through tangible solutions. Modern sales channels are complex, so how do you tackle them?
- Enter Incompetitor®. With this solution, you can see which offers have resulted in high customer satisfaction – both from your end and from your competition.
Looking ahead: Unique challenges call for intelligent solutions
Between tackling more selective consumers, more versatile competitors, and more evasive threats, balancing the market’s demands is undoubtedly proving to be as challenging as ever.
As such, antiquated, short-term pricing strategies simply don’t get the job done anymore; now is a time for holistic plans that balance present needs and eventual goals.
By utilizing data resources, you can dictate the future of your retail brand to be defined by intelligent, growth-oriented decisions… And, ultimately, by ever-increasing profit margins.
Want to know more about how IntelligenceNode can help? Check out our insightful product video or contact us to chat today!
