Editor’s note: Steve Rowen is an emerging markets specialist at Retail Systems Research, Boston. This is an edited version of post that originally appeared here under the title “Retailers vs. consumers on the future of the store.”
For every benchmark report we’re conducting in 2017, we’re also surveying consumers on the same topic. What are we asking them? The exact same questions we’re asking retailers. Sometimes we’ll have to change the wording a bit to remove any industry terms that consumers don’t use the way retailers do but the concept is straightforward: Are there gaps between what retailers believe and what consumers say is reality?
Internally, we’re referring to the project as the “he said/she said” data, and one look at our first data set and you’ll start to see why.
Take a look at just one of the questions about the store (the first topic we’re tackling), and see for yourself. We asked consumers how often they visit store today vs. just three years ago. This is what they had to say. In short, not much has changed yet but you can see the writing on the wall.
Then, in our yet-to-be-released store report, we asked retailers to rate how they agree with certain sentiments about the store. As you can see, the majority know what the problem is, and moreover, a great deal don't think they're prepared to deal with it effectively.
This is how a perfect storm is created.
May the remainder of 2017 continue to be a year of consumer-driven focus for us all.