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#118 Steve Dennis - Retail vs. eCommerce

Hey Budai Nation!

Welcome to episode 118 of The Ecom Show. This episode is a showdown between the world of retail and e-commerce. We’ve even got a celebrity guest on board to make things more interesting.

We’re beyond thrilled to share that the bestselling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, Steve Dennis, will be joining our founder and podcast host, Daniel Budai, for this incredibly stimulating and insightful conversation about the future of shopping in a rapidly evolving digital world.

So, listen in to learn more about:

✅ Professional Journey of Steve Dennis

✅ #1 Reason Why Retail Businesses Fail

✅ Takeaways From Successful Retail Businesses

✅ Retail vs. eCommerce

Professional Journey of Steve Dennis

Steve Dennis is a consultant, keynote speaker, and author specializing in retail and innovation. He made a name for himself in the retail space after climbing up the corporate ladder and becoming a senior executive at two major Fortune 500 retailers. He’s also the writer of the best-selling book—Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. He is also an esteemed consultant whose thoughts on the future of shopping are frequently shared in his role as a Forbes Senior Contributor.

Let’s backtrack to the beginning, though. Steve initially set out to pursue an education in law. However, he changed course after starting a small business with marketing guru Seth Godin during their junior year in college. Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Steve decided to pursue an education in business.

After this, he started working for a big consulting firm where he developed a special interest in food companies, so he got a job working in retail for “Sears, Roebuck and Company” in Chicago. Ever since, he’s continued to stay in the world of retail. Fascinated by consumer psychology, Steve has made a flourishing career for himself in the retail industry with over 30+ years of experience.

He’s currently the president of Sageberry Consulting, a strategic advisory firm that provides consulting services to the retail, fashion, and luxury industries. He’s even got his own podcast called Remarkable Retail.

#1 Reason Why Retail Businesses Fail

We’ve shifted to a more digitally connected world which has greatly affected consumer behavior and the way we shop. In the past, consumers were used to going to a physical store, and you know, having to gather information largely from salespeople, or their friends, or maybe a magazine, but you know, very traditional media, to see what was available. This meant that consumers had to physically run around if they wanted to explore a lot of choices.

But over the last 15 or 20 years, we’ve shifted to this world of abundance where there are almost infinite choices at the tip of our fingers. So, in a world of this abundance of choice, the abundance of information to be merely very good is no longer enough. Retail businesses need to be remarkable to survive.

The number one reason for retail businesses failing is mediocrity. In other words, businesses that don’t have a competitive edge or differentiating factor that makes them stand out often fail to succeed. This edge comes from offering competitive pricing, exceptional customer service, understanding the blend between the retail and digital world, and using it to enhance consumer interactions.

Businesses that fail to actualize this and evolve are often stuck in the boring middle and lead to failure.

Takeaways From Successful Retail Businesses

There are a lot of wildly successful brands that are almost synonymous with the word retail. Here are some quick takeaways and learnings that Steve Dennis shared from observing these real-life retail champions:

Apple: One of the most aspirational and popular technology brands in the market, Apple has succeeded by selling a lifestyle rather than a single product. They’ve built an entire community around their brand ethos, which shows how important community building is; and they provide excellent customer service, which shows the value of cultivating a nurturing customer experience.

Restoration Hardware: They’re not a very digitally driven company, but the lesson from them is to focus on solving problems for a niche. Restoration Hardware is really focused on a fairly narrow set of customers, and they try to meet their needs in a very direct way. This is one of the key ways to be remarkable. When a business can understand their customer and give them what they value, they’re able to retain customers even if they’re charging a premium price.

Target: They’re one of those brands that beautifully blend digital and physical in a much more profound way. Not only have they improved their e-commerce capabilities, but they’ve also recognized that there’s really no such thing as the e-commerce channel and the brick-and-mortar channel. It’s all just shopping. So, their focus has always been on how to best take care of the customer across a spectrum of needs and a spectrum of customer journeys.

One of the main learnings from them is to try and blend both retail and digital as your business grows. This brings us to the last part of our discussion.

Retail vs. eCommerce

A lot of people say that the future of shopping is e-commerce and that retail is dying. This is only half true. While e-commerce and digital are the future, retail is far from dead! People still love the convenience and instant gratification that comes with shopping from physical stores. The customer experience that’s provided through live shopping cannot be entirely replaced through e-commerce which is why both are essential for a business to grow.

So, instead of focusing on e-commerce vs. retail, businesses should be asking how e-commerce and retail can work together to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. Customer acquisition becomes challenging after a digitally native brand grows to a certain extent. Post a certain mark; businesses find it difficult to find new customers, which is where entering into retail and physical stores can help them grow further.

Similarly, purely offline businesses are limited to smaller market sizes. Going online opens up the door to a much wider geographic market and makes it easier for customers to find exactly what they want.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Ecom Show. You can check out some of our previous episodes if you’d like to learn more about e-commerce.

Thanks for tuning in. See you again next Thursday!

Follow Steve Dennis:

Steve’s LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenpdennis/

Steve’s Website:

https://stevenpdennis.com/

Steve’s Twitter:

https://twitter.com/stevenpdennis

The Remarkable Retail Book:

https://stevenpdennis.com/remarkable-retail/

The Remarkable Retail Podcast: