Towards a new retail approach - SD Worx

Towards a new retail approach Innovation, expansion, or change processes: as your strategic partner in retail, SD Worx helps you craft your ideal solution.

Retail is constantly in motion. Trends are evolving ever more quickly, and what’s new today can be indispensable tomorrow. How do you stay ahead? How can your organisation adapt to new challenges and opportunities? SD Worx offers you single-source access to what’s happening in the market, important facts and figures, and selected expert partners who can help you maximise specific aspects of the retail value chain.

Several striking trends It’s

globalisation, but not as we know it

Globalisation is becoming increasingly complex. The old model, in which consumer markets lay primarily in America and Europe while production took place largely in Africa and Asia, is crumbling. More and more often, mixed forms are cropping up: production is returning to the West, and elsewhere, new consumer markets are emerging under the influence of a rising middle class. To keep growing in retail, you must have a presence in those markets.

The

only channel is omnichannel

It’s no longer viable to think of retail channels as separate and distinct. The trusted bricks-and-mortar model familiar to most retail players is no longer sufficient. Competition from click-and-mortar shops, combined with Internetinformed consumers, is taking its toll. Retail players who fail to pursue an omnichannel presence risk gambling away a significant share of their margins and turnover.

No

value chain without human capital

Moreover, the divide between online and bricks-and-mortar is imaginary. They are both building blocks in the retail value chain. One of the most important elements in that value chain is the internal human factor - because the customer isn’t the only one changing. Your employees are evolving, too. What impact do they have on your value chain? How do they respond to rapid changes in the market? How do you squeeze the most out of your human capital? And how do you turn your employees into walking advertisements for your brand?

No lack of challenges Showrooming In the digital age, consumers are no longer uninformed. Often, they drop by a store to get advice on choosing a product; but how do you keep them from buying that product elsewhere online? The reverse also happens: customers do their research online, then visit a physical retail outlet to make the purchase. Well-trained personnel can use that to your company’s advantage and guide consumers to effective purchases.

Employer

branding

A brand story has to be more than just savvy marketing campaigns. The salesperson in the shop must eat, breathe, and live your message - and it should show in all that they do. A salesperson with a convincing story stands out, and they can significantly influence consumer buying behaviour.

Taking

advantage of constant change

Recognising retail trends and their impact is one thing. Aligning your operations with them - taking your specific niche market into account - is another. Where change management used to be a cyclical process, it is now a continuous challenge. Major changes can only succeed if they are properly translated onto the showroom floor. It’s often a real challenge to implement that switch in approach throughout every level of your own organisation. Moreover, a continuous approach to change demands considerable flexibility from your employees, which adds even more pressure.

An innovative retail partner As your strategic partner, we help you find effective solutions to all your challenges. More and more retail organisations are calling upon our expertise to help expand their business architecture and enter new markets.

SD Worx has in-house expertise on every aspect of HR: from payroll through legal advice to HR consulting and business process outsourcing. To make sure we intimately understand the extensive needs of the retail sector, we maintain close contact with innovative partners throughout the value chain. The partners in our network actively exchange retail knowledge and introduce each other to retail players.

Innovation is crucial if you want to keep playing an important role tomorrow. As an internationally recognised centre for retail expertise, SD Worx can also facilitate here. By expanding retail as a vertical segment of our organisation, we have aligned our company structure with the retail sector’s business model. That enables us to fully understand retail’s needs and design effective solutions.

We are a strategic partner to RetailDetail, the market leader in the Benelux countries. We are also a member of the National Retail Federation (NRF) in the US. That keeps us abreast of American trends, which indicate the direction in which the retail industry will further develop. After all, the US is still the largest consumer market in the world. Last but not least, we are strongly connected in Europe, where we support retail organisations in managing their growth.

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www.sdworx.com

Would you like to know more about how SD Worx can support expansion, change processes, and innovation in your retail operations? Please contact us for more information: retail@sdworx.com