Many retailers seeking ways to enhance the value of the
shopping experience are turning to services, whether offered in-store or in the
shopper’s home. In a Shop.org
Big Ideas session, titled How To Compete in the New Era of Retail,
Oisin Hanrahan, CEO and Founder of Handy, shared how his company has partnered
with retailers such as Walmart, Wayfair, Art.com and Lamps
Plus to deliver in-home repair services that help these retailers “Amazon-proof”
their business models.
The RTP team discusses whether services like Handy, and
other innovative offerings such as the Williams Sonoma Design
Crew or IKEA’s recently acquired Taskrabbit, can shift the
tide for companies trying to hold on to market share and build better customer engagement.
Debbie Hauss,
Editor-in-Chief: Retailers need to find new ways to appeal to today’s
shoppers, who are looking for personalization, experiences and better
engagement with brands. If services would work well with your brand, it’s
a great idea. I don’t think it will work if it is forced, though. Some
retailers focused on new services offerings include: Walmart and
Postmates, Walmart and Handy, Nordstrom’s Nordy
Club, CVS and Glamsquad,
and of course Whole Foods and Amazon.
Adam Blair, Executive
Editor: Whether or not offering services can actually “Amazon-proof” a
retailer, they are undoubtedly a competitive differentiator — particularly
given the perpetual time deficit that today’s consumers struggle with. In-home
product repair and assembly services are particularly valuable, given that most
schools no longer offer “shop”-style classes, where people previously could
pick up the rudiments of handling tools. (Of course, even master cabinetmakers
have been flummoxed by assembling IKEA bookcases, but that’s another story.)
Retailers also should put themselves in shoppers’ shoes when designing
services: I recently got back from a vacation in London that included trips to
the Camden Market and Portobello Road open-air markets.
These areas have hundreds of small merchants and are popular with tourists, and
I would have loved it if they also offered an Uber-style service to take purchases back to visitors’ hotels — or
even better, to ship them home at reasonable rates. Even something as simple as
“not carrying bags” can be considered a service.
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Glenn Taylor, Senior
Editor: To me, the revitalization of services harkens back to the concept
of “Main Street retailing,” in which shoppers seemingly had all of their needs met
within a single compact area of the town. It may have taken major retailers a
while to figure out how to bring back this concept, but the
partnership/acquisition route appears to be working. The service moves might
not immediately give retailers a way to take market share away from Amazon.
However, they will certainly make these retailers more aware of their strengths
and weaknesses, and improve their chances against their own direct competition.
The Porch
partnership with Overstock
is a great example of this: many home improvement products bought on the site
simply aren’t ready to go right out of the box, and not every customer has the
time or capability to learn on the fly how to put them together. With immediate
access to Porch’s network of 300,000 vetted home service professionals,
Overstock consumers would be less tempted to shop elsewhere for their home
products.
Bryan Wassel,
Associate Editor: These services can be a strong differentiator, but the
trick is making sure they truly stand out from the competition, preferably
drawing upon a unique aspect of the brand. For instance, there is nothing
stopping Amazon from launching its own repair service — the e-Commerce titan
is entering the health care industry, and launching (or
acquiring) a TaskRabbit-esque service would be a much less complicated
endeavor. Retailers looking to add services to their offerings should make sure
they both reflect the retailer’s values and stand on their own as a worthwhile
service, like Best Buy’s Geek
Squad. Simply adding an unnamed installation team or quietly providing repair
services won’t make much of a difference in the long term.
