Security breach

Looking forward
This year’s Big Show had a hard act to follow. In 2012,
former US President, Bill Clinton, gave the keynote speech
and then sat down to have a chat about where he bought
his Christmas presents for Hilary and Chelsea with Macy’s CEO
and president, Terry J Lundgren.
As outgoing chairman of the National Retail Federation (NRF),
Lundgren has now passed the torch onto Kip Tindell, CEO of the
Container Store. Alongside Walter Robb, co-CEO, WholeFoods
Market and Howard Shultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks,
Tindell delivered the keynote address to a packed auditorium
at 2013’s Big Show. Their message was one of ethical and
responsible business.
Tindell said: “Charities want to save the world but businesses
can too. I don’t believe that the only reason a corporation exists
is to satisfy shareholders. At the container company we think
about our employees first.
“If we take better care of them, they take better care of our
customers. It jus makes good sense. It’s not what you sell, it’s
what you stand for. And we stand for conscious capitalism.”
Robb added: “Being a retailer means you are continually
innovating, you are willing to reinvent yourself to serve your
customers. At WholeFoods we wanted to create a gathering
place, a community, to give a humanity to business.
“We believe in standards and transparency when it comes to
our products and where they were sourced. Our suppliers are
very important to us and we have helped farmers with loans so
they could expand their business.
“Of all our employees, 75,000 people, in total 40 per cent
have an equity share in the business. We also have projects like
WholeKids, which has helped create 1,500 gardens and delivered
1,500 salad bars to schools across the US.”
NRF review
Karen Moss reports there was an air of optimism for 2013 among attendees at
the National Retailing Federation’s Big Show in New York, 13-16 January
Interactive shop window displays
Shultz went on to
talk about Starbucks’
core belief, which is to
balance profitability with
a social conscience. The
coffee shop chain, which
employs 230,000 people
worldwide, was the first
company in the US to
provide comprehensive
healthcare for all its
employees, as well as
stock options.
Digital drink vending with NFC
“Our dream was that
our success would be shared,” he said. “We are now witnessing
a seismic shift in consumer behaviour. If retailers believe that
the same old ways of communicating with their employees and
customers are okay then they are on a collision course. Global
platforms like social media can no longer be an afterthought,
they are mission-critical. They must be funded and resourced.
Social media demands that we be relevant outside the four walls
of our company.”
Shultz then went on to rail against the ‘dysfunction’ in
Washington DC as America approaches a fiscal cliff. He said that
all industries, including retail, should not ‘sit idly by’ and watch
the death of the ‘American dream and the entrepreneurial spirit
of the country’.
Multi-channel
Around the exhibition centre there was a mood of, dare I say,
optimism among the technology vendors. There was a general
air, a feeling, that 2013 might prove to be the year that retailers
begin to invest more in their multi-channel strategies and
look to innovations like digital signage as ways to interact with
customers in-store.
Marks & Spencer has recognised that success in multi-channel
will require new innovations in its stores, which is prompting it to
undertake lots of experiments with in-store technology.
At a Cisco roundtable running alongside NRF Laura Wade-
Gery, executive director of multi-channel e-commerce at Marks
& Spencer, suggested: “The store is a fundamental part of the
customer experience. But you need to embrace experimentation
with it. The answers are not obvious so test things and put them
in front of people and see what happens.”
RS
February - March 2013 RS 33