Welcome to the digital divide facing retailers. It’s defined as the gap between consumer demand for digital experiences and retailers’ current capabilities to provide such experiences.
In 2019, successful retailers will need to commit to a continual quest to meet their target consumers on the channels they prefer, with what they want, at the time they’re there.
Amazon continues to define the consumer experience. Convenience, selection and price are being trained into Amazon shoppers daily (over half of all product searches now start on Amazon; and upward of 60% of all U.S. households are now Amazon Prime members).
To win the hearts and minds of today’s connected consumers, specialty brands retailers will need to offer a proprietary experience blend driven by meaningful story and cause woven through both brick-and-mortar and digital presences. It's the only way to vie for today’s consumers' trust, attention and ultimately, loyalty.
To be able to compete, retailers must develop capabilities to manage the gap from the digital divide while concurrently creating meaningful brand experiences that can only happen at specialty.
This panel will give them the tools and insights to do just that.
1 – Understanding the expectations of today’s omnichannel consumer and how to meet the consumer on their preferred channels
2 - How to create emotional engagement that sticks today (we can still own story and cause at specialty, but these powerful components of brands still must be delivered across the digital divide)
3 – What last-mile opportunity will look like in 2019 (exploring today’s digital 'control towers' that align consumer demand and expectation, and ultimately, influence where consumers will actually acquire/buy products)
4 – Solutions that can deliver tech capabilities to retailers, ultimately leveling the playing field (will include transparency into digital supply chain as well as beacon technology) |