The prominence of digital technology was the key theme at the recent State of the Retail Nation (SORN) panels hosted by the National Retail Association (NRA). Across three days in the first week of July, panel discussions containing professionals from across retail were held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
These events play a valuable role in communicating to retailers some of the evolving methods of operation that are taking place in one of Australia’s largest employment sectors.
Digital technology is one of the biggest disruptions to occur in retail in recent memory and it’s important that small and medium businesses understand how to use it effectively.
The Melbourne panel saw Grant Arnott of Power Retail emphasise the importance of choosing technology that adds value to the customer experience while staying true to your brand image. While Jemima Miller of Heritage Brands said that with customer savviness at its peak, implementing these technologies is paramount to maintaining a competitive edge.
Ron Gauci of the Australian Industry Information Association spoke of the unprecedented ability to have a global presence for a back garage. The panel was then rounded off with Neil Verral of NBN Co who argued that infrastructure such as the NBN can assist Australian businesses in being internationally competitive.
Brisbane’s SORN panel saw Yasmin Grigaliunas of the World’s Biggest Garage Sale and Cameron Douglas of Videopro speak on the importance of brand identity and authenticity carrying across all aspects of business. Yasmin even discussed wearing her brand to the shops and when exercising, while Cameron proclaimed professionalism to be dead and that authenticity is more important in business.
Other Brisbane panellists included Mirela Lane of HireVue and Ryan Williams of NBN Co who discussed the challenges of addressing root issues such as training and communication, noting that the entire business supply chain needs to be trained correctly to deal with customer issues to provide the best customer experience.
Finally, the Sydney panel included Brian Walker of the Retail Doctor Group who spoke of the range of choice customers now have to research their purchases online. This is despite a significant trend of customers still choosing to visit physical stores and he argued that having a physical store remains an important part of the customer experience.
The Sydney event also saw Lisa Shalem of Shoes & Sox open up about the challenges of inventory management between online and physical stores. She noted how if a customer orders the final pair of shoes online and then a separate customer purchases that pair in-store, a sale has effectively been lost. The final panellist was Kristian Haigh of eBay who reinforced the need for retailers to be using new technology to more effectively manage inventory.
All panels were informative and well received by those who attended, once again demonstrating the insightful people we have in the retail sector.
