Is Your Brand Ready? Tips to Connect with Shoppers of the Future

Today's shopper is more informed, more demanding and more sophisticated.

Frictionless information access through online, mobile and social media channels has tilted the balance of power from the brand to the shopper, driving brands to develop new methods of shopper outreach.
 

This new dynamic will drive brands and retailers to rethink their shopper-facing business processes and develop new methods of connecting with shoppers inside and outside the store.
 

"The shopper experience of the future is being developed now," said Steven Skinner, vice president, Cognizant Business Consulting Retail, CG, and Hospitality Practice, who revealed the latest findings of a breakthrough new study conducted by RIS News and Cognizant on November 18, 2010, during a CGT Web seminar.
 

Read on to find out some highlights from the Web seminar:
 

--Skinner explained four change drivers affecting how brands and retailers will interact with shoppers. First, a tech-savvy new generation of millennials is revamping everything from communication to innovation within the retail environment. Second, virtualized business models are enabling real-time collaboration among teams on a global basis. Third, the increasingly global nature of information is allowing for enterprises to rethink what work needs to be executed inside the four walls of the company, outside the four walls, onshore, nearshore or offshore. And finally, the rise of cloud computing technology is enabling a fundamentally different infrastructure that de-couples capital investment requirements from rapid adoption of innovative technologies.
 

-- Girish Dhaneshwar, Director, Consulting, Cognizant, provided a generational analysis of the study. For example, he revealed that 41 percent of "Emerging Elders" not only want the buy online and deliver to store service, but they also want the opposite: buy in-store and deliver to home service. "This potential has implications on brand manufacturers to extend their delivery model to support orders created in the store," Dhaneshwar added. He also uncovered some challenges to the consumer goods industry, including brand assortment strategies by channel; supply chain flexibility to enable fulfillment; consistent brand messaging, product information, price points and product mix across channels; and reconciliation of cross channel promotion strategies.
 

--Skinner and Dhaneshwar highlighted many trends they found through this research, but ended by emphasizing one major trend: "Generation Y is fundamentally changing the behavior of all other generations," closed Skinner, along with an anecdote about his 75-year-old mother-in-law and how she learned to understand technology from his 15-year-old son and 27-year-old nanny. "If you don't understand how Generation Y is impacting your customer segment, then you run the risk of being left behind."
 

To listen to this event in its entirety, click here.