Welcome to the second of our IREU Dimension Reports based on our most recent research. Our subject this time is Strategy & Innovation, a facet of RetailCraft that can easily become highly theoretical, even divorced from day-to-day business concerns.
For this reason among others, our focus in researching this area has consistently been on how companies are performing here and now in a variety of core areas. These include fulfilment, the overall customer experience and, keeping in mind the IREU Top500 is an index of European retailers, how well businesses tailor their offerings to different local markets.
The results are revealing. In particular, fulfilment is emerging as a key area for retailers to focus on. That’s because the performance of leading retailers is strong here, which leads to other businesses needing to improve their offerings just to compete. This in turn increases customer expectations, which puts further pressure on retailers to improve their offering.
This is one of several themes we will return to later in 2019 when we publish a second IREU Strategy & Innovation Dimension Report that takes a closer look at some of the issues highlighted here. We will support both publications with online content and, where we judge a business issue needs addressing urgently, whitepapers, roundtables and webinars.
