New ways of doing business take centre stage in today’s InternetRetailing newsletter. We report as the Co-op looks to put digital first in new disruptive approaches to retail, and we have an interview with Birchbox UK’s Savannah Sachs focused on its own disruptive business model.
It’s not surprising the focus is on disruption when tried and tested ways of doing business are meeting with challenges. Retailers from Maplin to Toys R Us have recently called in the administrators, while it’s now routine for traders that to cite challenging markets in their strategic updates, even when they are reporting sales growth. Today it’s the turn of Topps Tiles and AO.com.
Some are looking to technology for answers in a retail environment that is not only more challenging, but also more demanding. Fat Face is focusing on local payments as it looks to expand internationally, while Mountain Warehouse is looking to personalisation, and seeing results.
Today’s guest comment comes from Stephen Hardy of FPX, who considers growth opportunities in B2B ecommerce.
Webinars Find out more about upcoming InternetRetailing webinars and register for free on the InternetRetailing webinar page. You can also catch up with past webinars on the page: recent sessions have come from IBM Watson on using AI to improve the customer experience, and from SmartFocus and The Entertainer on using social to reach digital customers.
