Weathering the Storm By Lindsay Parker, Director of Global Retail Solutions, Cisco
The ocean of ink that's been spilled chronicling the demise of organized retail as we know it makes those of us who work with retailers wonder if we'll ever have the chance to serve or sell to them again. Granted, the holiday season of this past year was tough - with a 2.8 percent decrease in sales vs. the previous year (NRF, 2009), it was one of the worst holiday seasons on record. And a number of retailers filed Chapter 11, while others, unfortunately, are on the verge of the same fate. However, I think the reports of the retail industry's death are rather premature.
With all of the doom and gloom that's out there, one key party appears to be missing from the conversation - the customer! People are still shopping albeit less frequently and in bargain-hunting mode, but they are out there in stores and malls and still looking for a positive customer experience. They don't care if retailers have to hunker down, or are trying to cut costs - they just want to be able to buy what they want, when and how they want to buy it.
More than Just "Weathering the Storm"
Despite the economic meltdown, some of the biggest and smartest retailers are viewing this current situation as a time to gain market share by building stronger connections with their customers. And those retailers who remained focused on the customer had a healthy holiday season - such as Amazon, Apple and Wal-Mart, who most notably were able to post gains in online holiday traffic. By providing a relentless focus on connecting with customers, these retailers were able to do the unthinkable - turn satisfied shoppers into loyal advocates during a downturn. By providing a customer experience that is convenient, compelling and connected to their customers' wants and needs, Amazon, Apple and Wal-Mart appear to have bucked the recessionary trend that has often gripped the majority of their competitors.
So what does all this mean? First and foremost, it means that we have to be willing to meet our retail customers where they live right now - at the intersection of customer loyalty and operational efficiency. With fewer customers walking through the doors, and spending less when they do, each customer is more important than ever before. Gaining their loyalty is more than a strategy, it's essential to a retailer's future. While retailers don't have a lot of money to spend on securing a customer as a loyal shopper, it's our role as vendors and trusted advisers to provide solutions that enable retailers to connect with customers as efficiently as possible. We need to show retailers how to "do more with less."
The Connected Retail Strategy
Our Connected Retail strategy is designed to help retailers use technology to turn shoppers into loyal advocates, securely and cost-effectively. Our Channel Partners are critical to this strategy as they can help position these solutions within a retail operation with the appropriate decision makers. So it's essential that we educate and cooperate with our partners to enable their success with our joint retail customers.
To that end, we've developed an important team to focus on developing and driving retail solutions into the marketplace - Cisco's Retail Channel Advisory Board. This group comprises six to eight key Channel Partners who are tasked with helping Cisco develop solutions that solve retail business problems. For instance, retailers are looking to buy solutions vs. point products, and Channel Partners need helping bring these solutions to customers. The Channel Advisory Board provides a venue to learn about and shape solutions to take to retailers. Retailers also want their partners, Channel or otherwise, to understand business issues and this group will be a forum to share best practices and ideas around business issues and potential solutions.
This new Channel Advisory Board had its first meeting following the National Retail Federation Show in January and will meet on an ongoing basis every quarter. The inaugural advisory board meeting resulted in an agreement to continue to meet on a quarterly basis, to provide input into Cisco's solutions roadmap, and review existing Channel collateral to ensure alignment with Channel Partner objectives. Channel Partners will use the board as an opportunity to help companies define what needs to be included in solutions as well as product offerings that will make them more relevant as well as help retailers be more successful.
Lindsay Parker currently serves as the director of Global Retail Solutions for Cisco, which develops and markets technology solutions that enable retailers to become more effective through improved business processes and intelligent technology deployment.
The ocean of ink that's been spilled chronicling the demise of organized retail as we know it makes those of us who work with retailers wonder if we'll ever have the chance to serve or sell to them again. Granted, the holiday season of this past year was tough - with a 2.8 percent decrease in sales vs. the previous year (NRF, 2009), it was one of the worst holiday seasons on record. And a number of retailers filed Chapter 11, while others, unfortunately, are on the verge of the same fate. However, I think the reports of the retail industry's death are rather premature. 
