With Retail in a steady decline (see Retail Apocalypse), everyone blames Amazon. That really isn’t the case.
One thing Google and Amazon do is try things. They fail. A lot. But keep trying things. Most companies fear failure so don’t try things.
Retailers have not realized that in e-commerce sales friction is a problem. A big problem. Amazon is the gold standard of frictionless buying as well as frictionless delivery. Execution and Customer Experience are key components of that.
This past weekend we tried to buy a Samsung TV from target.com. It was clunky on mobile to the point I had to pull out the laptop. Changing store locations on mobile (tablet or phone) was hard. Get through the order process, pick up will be in 2 hours. Good thing I checked my email before heading out because the order was cancelled due to lack of inventory! No text (despite having my cell number to confirm the account!)
Then I don’t get my money back for 5 days! WTH Target?
Early on, Target used Amazon for e-commerce. Now they have their own site. Apparently, there is a lag between order placement and when the order is picked. In 10 years on Amazon, I think this happened once. This has happened twice with other stores.
Walmart has a clunky website too. Despite buying jet.com for $3.3B in 2016, Walmart dot com has not caught up to the frictionless experience of Amazon. Management treats them as 2 separate entities. I imagine that Walmart wants the foot traffic of in-store pick-up. This would be smart except that the in-store experience is hurry-up-and-wait.
So I trek over to Walmart to pick up a similar TV. The TVs are security tagged together. I have to find someone to unlock it. Then wait in line to pay for it. The register is broken (there was even on a note on the register saying this on the screen that the cashier ignored.) Wait some more. Finally pay for it. Then I can’t find a route out of the store. The route I chose was one-way and the alarm went off.
Walmart gets a lot of shoplifting – about $2B worth per year – but on the occasion that I shop there, I notice that they treat everyone like a thief. The CX (customer experience) is lacking because they want to reduce labor costs and push a self-serve model. I dislike self check-out. Something often goes wrong. Plus not having staff walking around means more opportunity for theft and that customers can’t get help (so lost sales too).
Retail is a lot like newspapers in so many ways. First newspapers railed about Craigslist for taking all the profits. Then they railed at Google. In all of that time, they never even attempted to change their business/financial model.
Retail has spent years yelling about Amazon, but that isn’t why malls are empty and foot traffic is down. It is a combination of the customer experience and the buyers. Ron Johnson’s lessons at JCPenneys were lost on many in retail. Buyers today want frictionless, inventory in stock and some kind of experience. Have you ever shopped at Mens Wearhouse? That is an experience.
Whenever I hear complaints about the monopoly – Amazon, Google, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon – I realize that the business owner or executive just wants easy. They want masses built on low price, which isn’t realistic. There are riches in niches that fill the holes of the blind spots and weaknesses of the monopolies. Expose those. Leverage those. But remember two things: it is about customer experience and execution.