BrazilExcessive technology can be counter-productive in new retail, says S.POINT
Technological advancements have in recent years opened the door to ‘new retail’ – but an overreliance on technology can be counter-productive for retailers, argues Steven Jiang, Managing Partner of Shanghai-based innovation consultancy S.POINT.
Moving beyond just a buzz-word, the ‘new retail’ business model has outright boomed in recent years, most notably driven by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Striving for the seamless integration of offline and online shopping channels, together with a mesh of big data, logistics, marketing and distribution, the emergence of new retail has been undoubtedly enabled by rapidly evolving intelligent technologies.
But, as Steven Jiang, Managing Partner and Vice President of Shanghai-based product innovation consultancy S.POINT notes, not all enterprises have the strong technological genes of Alibaba. Jiang contends as such that enterprises in the new retail space can have a tendency to over-rely on technology, with its excessive application and misapprehension of the space producing effects counter to intentions.
“Developers with a misunderstanding of new retail are over-dependent on technology and believe that technology changes and solves everything, which is an extreme obsession with technology,” states Jiang. Rather, new retailers should as a starting point consider scenarios across the shopping and buying life-cycle and the combination of human and technological elements to create a seamless customer experience.
“New retail should pay particular attention to the sense of balance to connect technology with customers to create a better experience – as the application of excessive technology leaves no room for the development of the relationship with customers,” says Jiang. “The key lies in the insight into customer scenarios, and only by understanding and extending scenarios for their consumers can organisations have the chance of winning new retail opportunities.”
An MBA graduate from the MIT Sloan School of Management and former consumer and industrial goods consultant with Booz & Company, Jiang was a founding member of the China Industrial Design Institute and now serves as Managing Director for S.Point, a 1997-founded Chinese consultancy and Cordence Worldwide member with offerings in consumer research, product definition & design, product delivery, go-to-market strategy, and innovation capacity building among other provisions.
With respect to his contentions on new retail, Jiang points to the modern self-serving vending machines that have emerged in the past few years, which are very advanced in terms of technology but haven’t been entirely successful – separated as they are from consumer scenarios. “Consumers will not approach technology proactively,” he says. “Only when technology is made close to customers’ needs can it find its market.”
Noting that the center of shopping has shifted from the merchandise in traditional retail to customers in new retail, Jiang concludes: “Enterprises hoping to grasp new retail should understand traditional retail from the heart – i.e. consumers see the product first, then recognise the brand, and compare prices in the end. If consumers cannot see the product or understand the product it will be very difficult to push sales . . . the key to new retail lies in creating new and more scenarios to increase the value of the merchandise.”
