Adidas Makes an Omni-channel Move on India

The Financial Express is reporting that Adidas is making a play in India to convert their strategy to an omni-channel approach. The initiative includes integrating digital tech into 200 of its 750 stores, allowing shoppers to browse items that are not currently in stock via an iPad.

Although this isn't a particularly imaginative approach, Abhishek Lal (senior e-commerce at Adidas) has indicated that the company is hoping to see a 10 to 15% lift in revenue thanks to the new integration. As an incentive, Adidas has made certain product lines available only through their ecommerce offering. Their Neo line of shoes and clothing has been acting as a test model, being available only through the web in the Indian Market.

From a business standpoint, the move allows the company to see what product lines are gaining traction in different markets before making the commitment to ship large amounts of inventory. It remains to be seen whether the lack of tactile feel will affect the sales.

Personally,  I'm a bit skeptical that an iPad in a store can be as effective as the product. The customer has made the effort to come into a branded location, it would make more sense to have, at least, a show room version available. That may be part of the plan, but the Financial Express article had no clear indication on the depth of the strategy.

Read More on Business Line

Myanmar Sets Daily Minimum wage $2.80

 Myanmar's government has set the daily minimum wage for workers in the country at $2.80. Industry experts are predicting this move to be a shot at recovering the garment industry that was once incredibly strong in the country.

According to the International Labor Organization, this would put Myanmar (formally called Burma) at a great competitive advantage over other countries in the region. A single worker in Myanmar would cost $67, versus $90 in Vietnam and $128 in Cambodia. 

The move comes as the Untied states announced that it will be lifting the sanctions placed on the country back in 2012. The original issue stemmed from the US being concerned that many companies were tied to the generals who ran the region up until 2011. The blacklist was seen as a way to ensure the flow of money stopped. 

The new law excludes family run operations and companies with less than 15 workers and is aimed primarily at the large international companies that do business in the region.

Read More at Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/29/us-myanmar-economy-wages-idUSKCN0QY0A620150829

Retail Stocks Showing Promise Amid Market Volitility

The Dow Jones industrial has gone a wild ride as the Chinese market has entered into a correction. The industrial average dropped 3.5% yesterday and the stock prices of major retailers like Wal-mart, target and Costco followed but to the surprise of many analysts, they bounced back slightly.

While analysts are quick to scream that the sky is falling, others are holding off to see what will happen before making any grave predictions. CNBC economist Jack Kleinhenz pointed out that it's "too soon to make any changes to the near-term outlook for U.S. economic growth and consumer spending,"

Wal-mart has already lowered their forecasts based on the increased costs of labor and slumping currency markets. It remains to be seen how other large retailers like Macy's and Target will be affected by the slide. With back to school season in full swing and the holiday's coming on quickly many are expecting most big chain stocks to feel the pinch of a contracting economy.

Yahoo Will Acquire Polyvore to Gain Foothold in Fashion Retail

Internet dinosaur Yahoo.com continues to roam the internet. This time eating up San Francisco based fashion site Polyvore for a reported 230 million dollars. Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer has been on dealing with the unpleasant task of trying to stop the downward spiral of the company and has been making some progress. This acquisition comes as part of her plan to expand their reach across the essential product verticals.

If you're unfamiliar with Polyvore, they're site is outfit based and designed to suck you into scrolling for new styles and outfits. It's much like Pinterest, but has stronger ties to the brands that are featured. I was surprised to check Alexa and see that they're in close to breaking the top 500.

It's not entirely clear what Yahoo's strategy will be with the property. If you look at their acquisition track record they will often let a property mature before injecting too much of their own editorial on it. Tumblr is a prime example of a property that was left to be its own community, while Flickr is one of the platforms that Yahoo is mostly thought to have ruined with bureaucracy.

Target Increases Pressure Online with Back to School Online Push

Sticking to their 'Expect More, Pay Less' approach to retailing, American giant Target turned up the heat on competitors this week when they announced free shipping and free returns during the back to school season.

The company vowed to further expand their omni-channel offerings back in May, and this new push shows that they're willing to make moves to secure a bigger share of the online market. As noted in this Retail Dive article, the back to school 'season' is the biggest part of the buying season aside from the holidays. It makes perfect sense that the retailer would want to try and have customers form good online buying habits before Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Target held on to their $50 minimum purchase threshold for free shipping significantly longer than other big chains, which some observers note could be the reason that Target is now racing to make up for lost time.

Despite being a bit slow out of the gate, the company managed to grow their eCommerce business by 30% during 2014. Given that they were coming from behind established retailers like Amazon and growing powerhouse Wal-mart, it will be interesting to see if they can maintain that kind of growth year over year without causing damage to their brick and mortar traffic.

Should you be targeting shoppers during their commute?

As the omni-channel marketplace continues to evolve, more data is becoming available as to when customers are browsing and shopping. I just came across this article, which estimates that UK shoppers spend £9.3 billion while commuting to and from their daily job.

With shopping malls on the decline and smartphone penetration estimated to be over 70% the time spent idle during the daily commute would naturally turn to shopping. It's unclear as to whether or not the study takes into account sales with mobile attribution - for example a purchase made on a home computer after researching on a mobile device - but the numbers are significant either way. The study was done in partnership with mobile payments company Zapp and their CEO was quick to point out that the checkout process could still be optimized.

“But fishing out your credit or debit card and then tapping in a long sequence of numbers does not represent the ideal checkout experience on a packed train. If commuter commerce is to continue to flourish we need faster, safer mobile payment methods.” 

How could an omni-channel ready company use this information? Maybe they could hold a flash sale during the hours of the average persons commute or make a specific offer to users on the wifi provided by public transit. The possibilities are limited only by the creativity of the marketing team and a companies ability to deliver on their promise.

Indian Companies Set sights on Omnichannel

With so much going on in North America we often overlook massive foreign markets like Brazil and India. To think that the savvy business people in these places aren't following the trends would be silly. Case and point is this article, which makes the point that omni-channel is the future for retailers in India.

The minister of commerce recently spoke at a Retail Summit and had this to say:

“Omnichannel retailing is the way to go in India. All retailers have a big market, nevertheless organised retailers will have to find local relevance,”

He makes an excellent point. Although there is a billion people in India there is also a wide range of cultural and local diversity. To succeed in omni-channel in India retailers will need to maintain strong ties within each area to find to success. In some ways the omni-channel model works to their benefit in that store to consumer shipping can be presented in the localized flavor of language and customs. The businesses that can grasp how to stay organized and go above and beyond the simple, pick and ship process stands to make huge gains over their competition.