Remarkable Retail: How to Win and Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption

by Steve Dennis, Sucharita Kodali (Foreword by)

Overview

Physical retail isn’t dead—but boring retail is! Remarkable Retail equips the savvy retailer with eight essential strategies to thrive in an increasingly volatile and uncertain future.

​Digital technology has profoundly altered the competitive landscape for retailers. In Remarkable Retail, industry thought leader Steve Dennis argues that in a world of nearly infinite choice, where the lines between digital and physical are increasingly blurred, even being very good is no longer good enough. To win and keep customers today, retailers must be nothing short of remarkable.

In most retail categories, digital channels are often central to the consumer’s journey, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t also shopping in stores; they’re just using them differently, often browsing in one channel and buying in the other. The notion of a physical store channel and an ecommerce channel is increasingly a distinction without a difference; the customer is the channel. The future belongs to those who embrace the blur of digital and physical that represents modern retail today and work to deliver an experience that is more harmonized and more memorable, regardless of how consumers decide to shop.

Packed with illuminating case studies from some of modern retail’s biggest success stories—and leveraging Dennis’s more than thirty years as a senior executive and strategic consultant to dozens of brands—Remarkable Retail lays out the case for going beyond a slightly better version of mediocre and forging a path to being truly remarkable. To help retailers on this transformation journey, Dennis presents eight essential strategies for visionary leaders who are prepared to reimagine their way of doing business. A remarkable retailer is digitally enabled, human-centered, harmonized, mobile, personal, connected, memorable, and radical.

In an age where consumers have short attention spans, myriad options, and a digitally integrated relationship with every brand, Remarkable Retail is your indispensable guide to creating a powerful retail experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781928055921
Publisher:	Wonderwell Press
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker on retail innovation. As a senior executive at two Fortune 500 retailers and as a consultant, Steve has worked with dozens of brands to reignite and accelerate their growth. He is a Forbes senior contributor, and has been named a top global retail influencer by multiple organizations. His commentary on the future of shopping is regularly featured in the media and on the Remarkable Retail podcast, which he hosts. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Author's Note xv

Introduction: A World Turned Upside Down xvii

Part 1 Shift Happens

1 An Epic Revolution, Accelerated 1

2 The New Scarcity 21

3 Apocalypse? Not Exactly 33

4 The Collapse of the Middle 45

5 The Amazon Effect 57

6 The Future Will Not Be Evenly Distributed 71

7 The Customer Is the Channel 85

8 Optimizing to Extinction 91

9 Defenders of the Status Quo 101

10 An Especially Bad Time to Be Boring 111

Part 2 The Journey to Remarkable

11 The Eight Essentials of Remarkable Retail 123

12 Essential #1: Digitally Enabled 135

13 Essential #2: Human-Centered 145

14 Essential #3: Harmonized 159

15 Essential #4: Mobile 171

16 Essential #5: Personal 181

17 Essential #6: Connected 199

18 Essential #7: Memorable 211

19 Essential #8: Radical 229

20 A Brave New World 241

Acknowledgments 251

Notes 255

Bibliography and Additional Reading 259

Index 261

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Required reading for anyone who runs a store, shops, or who lives in a town that depends on stores for community, excitement, or taxes. The book is clear, clean, well written, actionable, true, appropriately witty, fun to read, and well done. Steve Dennis knows exactly what’s happening in retail today and tomorrow, and he’s eager to share his wisdom.” 
—Seth Godin, author of This Is Marketing

“COVID has reshaped the retail landscape radically and irrevocably. To navigate this landscape, retailers need entirely new strategies. Lean on Steve’s experience and read this book.”
—Scott Galloway, bestselling author of The Four and Post Corona

“Remarkable Retail is your guide to fast-track innovation and, more importantly, consumer relevance in the COVID economy.”
—Brian Solis, digital anthropologist, bestselling author, futurist

“Remarkable Retail is a crucial playbook in a category that does not tolerate mediocrity.”
—Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy