RWC 2010: New Consumer Will Define Retail of the Future

The consumer has changed. The economy is over the worst, but still faltering. It is a given that customers want multi-channel shopping. These were some of the main messages running through the Retail Week Conference 2010 in London, which ended last night.

A few hot snippets were revealed by the giants: Marks & Spencer's Sir Stuart Rose said that if he was 32 and coming into the M&S brand today he would evolve it into a "cradle-to-grave" proposition, by moving into other product categories. He intimated that his successor, Marc Bolland, will start opening up new categories, such as cosmetics and telecomms. Tesco's Terry Green said that the private fashion label F&F would become the world's biggest fashion brand for women, men and kids within five years. And eBay shared its vision for the new fashion channel it is launching in a few months for branded clothing.

Consistently, retail speakers described the challenge of satisfying a new, post-recession consumer. Compared to two years ago, today's consumers are even more fussy, more demanding and savvy. They take speed, selection and a sharp price for granted. They want excellent customer service and want to know retailers are targeting sustainability. They will also drive what happens next in retail, particularly online retail. Everyone, including Rose, said that it is very hard to predict the future of the brick-and-mortar shop. When asked about this, Rose said he didn't know what it would look like, but that it would be likely to house fewer clothes and more features such as a postal service, sophisticated Internet browsing facilities and parcel pick-up points. The advice about strategy is to "stay loose" and think beyond the traditional retail concept.

Shopping online is changing everything forever and the most recent mobile revolution, the arrival of apps, is accelerating that change. Every 12 seconds in the U.K., something is bought by mobile phone. The featured "rising stars" (White Stuff, Mywardrobe.com and Dwell) described being obsessed with customer service and obsessed with generating personality. Everyone grumbled about carrier services.

The mood at the show was quietly optimistic, not so much for the economic upturn, but for the innovation and creativity that will be needed to address customer requirements in the very near future. Rose called it "thinking tangentially."