The Store is Dead, Long Live the Store

There are few in retail circles who would argue that the role of the store is the same as it was at the start of 2020, with the retail industry (like every other on the planet) undeniably changed as a result of the global pandemic.

Where once upon a time retail business models had the luxury of evolving over years and sometimes decades, retailers over the last two years have been forced to rapidly pivot their operations, change business models, and switch (in many cases) to unfamiliar, new ways of working.

These changes have included the diversification of the physical store to support the increase in e-commerce; delivering entirely new offerings such as curbside pickup; and the realignment of workflows and processes to support profitability across an entire network, not just one location.

While it’s almost inevitable that e-commerce growth will outpace growth through physical stores at some point in the future, it would be a huge mistake to lose sight of the critical role stores have to play beyond purely profitability, but also in terms of softer measures of brand health, not least of which include loyalty and the overall customer experience journey.

Today, retailers need to rethink traditionally held ideas around assets and operations. It’s not simply a matter of digital vs. physical anymore; rather, it’s about how a brand can leverage all the stock and channels at its disposal to deliver that truly remarkable customer experience journey.

The key to this lies in not being distracted by the minutiae of how an order is necessarily placed, but rather concentrating on where it ultimately gets fulfilled.

Bed Bath & Beyond, for example, recently reported that 31 percent of its online orders were fulfilled from its stores. The company, like many other retailers, understands that store pickup transactions provide it with a means to increase sales and reduce last-mile expenses at the same time.

As a result of (rather than in spite of) the rapid growth of digital channels in 2020 and 2021, 21st century retailers need to understand that the store will remain a significant channel for generating revenue, customer engagement, and fulfilment opportunities.

This rapid evolution has led to an increased awareness and reliance on dynamic and resilient in-store systems, critical to modern retail ecosystems — systems like modern point of sale (POS).

POS has certainly come a long way since the rather perfunctory function of previous generations. No longer is POS simply a tool to complete a transaction (sales or returns) and the associated reporting. Modern POS represents the key to unified commerce, enabling activities such as endless aisle, click-and-collect, store fulfilment of online orders, clientele management, and loyalty.

While the store may no longer be the sun around which all retail offerings orbit, a compelling brick-and-mortar presence that works in harmony with a unified, smarter digital offering could well be the answer to the question on the lips of so many retail leaders right now: How do we create a compelling competitive advantage against such a significantly changed industry landscape?

The role of the store has changed and so too has the technology that supports it. This, however, shouldn't come as a great surprise as the history of the retail industry has always been one of change, evolution and progress. Today’s environment, accelerated by the pandemic, is no different.

With greater emphasis on the need to fulfil, execute and optimize against e-commerce and e-fulfilment, it’s clear that the physical store, supported by modern POS systems, still has a significant (if not changed) role to play when it comes to being able to commerce confidently.

While the store of yesteryear is well and truly dead, the store of today is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. The challenge now falls to retailers to realize the true potential of their marquis brick-and-mortar assets by pairing them with the right future-ready, in-store systems like modern POS.

Joe Kamara, currently working as sales director at Manhattan Associates, has 25-plus years of experience developing strategic initiatives focused on digital and store commerce, mobility, customer order management, customer relationship management, supply chain, and store operations.