Why Change Is So Scary For Retailers — And How They Need To Overcome The Fear
By Andi Simon, Simon Associates
You don’t have to look far to see the massive changes that brick-and-mortar retailers face today. The challenges are everywhere. Generations that used to buy goods from actual stores are being replaced by waves of people, particularly Millennials, who have mastered the art of online shopping. E-Commerce providers have enormous power. And manufacturers are going directly to end users, cutting out the retailer altogether. Creating even more pain is the pressure to hold onto talented employees to serve those few customers who are still visiting stores.
The pain of change for retailers is real, and only getting worse.
Why haven’t retailers seen the changes coming all around them and adapted to them, not fled from them? They remain stuck, reluctant to abandon what they’ve always known, resistant to change and scared of what the future brings.
5 BIG Reasons Why Change Is So Scary
1. The power
of the herd. As humans have evolved, we have stuck close to others like
ourselves, whether you call it a tribe or a community or a “herd.”
2. The data is talking to you. Can you hear it? Take a look at this 2014 trend analysis of e-Commerce purchases and mall foot traffic. Clearly, the decline of brick and mortars has been coming for a while. What were retailers watching? The data was speaking to them but they chose not to listen.
3. Habits are comfortable. Our brains are habit-driven. As Charles Duhigg wrote in “The Power of Habit,” we have brains that are most comfortable when our habits take over. Yes, the brain is plastic and we can learn new things, it just takes effort — and a little pain.
4. Your brain hates to change. Your brain uses 25% of your body’s energy. By the time you are 30, you’ve created your personal mind map of reality that is your “truth.” You sort what you see and hear and experience, based on how these fit your mind map. Change literally creates chemical reactions in the brain that say “stop that.”
5. It’s not a crisis — yet! We often tell clients that they have a hard time changing unless there is a crisis or they create one. David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz describe this in detail in Neurosciences and Leadership.
What Do You Do? Flee? Fight? Or Embrace The Changes?
Change is not going away and the future is upon us. That said, here are some effective change strategies that retailers might be ready to try, now that the crisis is upon them.
1. The end of competitive advantage. Forget the competition. What are you going to do to open a new market space by adding value innovatively? That does not mean another sale. It means you must step out and look at the consumer with fresh eyes. What does he/she really need? Think Starbucks, Amazon, even Uber.
2. Speed and ease. Let’s face it, today’s fast-paced lifestyle has taken over. What can the retailer do to make “speed and ease” their strategy?
3. Become a platform, not a retailer. We met with prospective clients recently who once worked at jewelry stores that have closed. Now, they are creating a concierge service to connect consumers who want to buy jewelry with the purveyors of beautiful diamonds and rubies. No inventory. No retail space. Just a service like Uber connecting those with a need with those with a solution.
4. Nonusers await you. Who is not using you but could? Why are they avoiding you? Did they try you once and never came back? That is a market awaiting you, so refocus beyond your current customer.
5. Unmet needs. Even your current customers have unmet needs. Spend a day in their life as an anthropologist might, and watch and listen. Focus not on what they are doing with you or other retailers but on what they could do with you and what you could do for them—albeit differently.
Time To Re-Imagine Retail
The times they are a-changin’, as Bob Dylan sang to us many years ago. Perhaps it is time to embrace the changes and stop fighting them. Look around — opportunities await you!
Andi Simon, author of On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights, is a corporate anthropologist and award-winning author. She is the founder and CEO of Simon Associates Management Consultants, designed over a decade ago to help companies use the tools of anthropology to better adapt to changing times. Simon, who works with clients globally, also is a public speaker who has addressed audiences throughout the world and is an Innovation Games facilitator and trainer. She has shared her expertise and insights at hundreds of workshops. Simon served as a tenured professor of anthropology and American studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey, and was a visiting professor teaching entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. Simon has appeared on “Good Morning America” and has been featured in the Washington Post and Business Week, and on Bloomberg Radio. She is a Huffington Post contributor and a blogger for Forbes.