10 New Retail Rules: What Would Google Do?

10 New Retail Rules: What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis Inspires New White Paper

Inspired by Jeff Jarvis’s book What Would Google Do?, Oracle has prepared a new white paper that outlines 10 ways retailers can profitably navigate today’s competitive landscape, which is marked by transformative consumer technologies as well as profound macroeconomic changes.

In his book, Jarvis reverse-engineers the success of Google and offers a prescription for success in a new economy that Google itself is helping create.

Titled “New Rules of Retail,” Oracle’s new white paper draws on Jarvis’s approach, focusing specifically on ways retailers can respond profitably to the new realities. The 10 rules, each illustrated by specific retail success stories, include

1. Listen to your customers. Social media means customers are talking to each other. Convert critics into fans and fans into influencers.
2. Become a destination for information. Assume customers are accessing information via smart phones—even from within stores. Retailers that share the most accurate and comprehensive product information will win favor with consumers.
3. Be transparent. Share both successes and failures with customers. Customers appreciate candor and want to align with retailers that reflect their values.
4. Communities of customers already exist, so help them organize better. Bring like-minded customers together to promote product discoveries and word-of-mouth advertising.
5. Serve small markets with niche products. Today’s technologies make it much easier to reach small, widely distributed markets.
6. Offer experiences to go with the products customers buy. Different experiences attract different customers for exactly the same products.
7. Use social networks to make better merchandising decisions. Social media makes it easier not only to collect data but also to collaborate and vote on new ideas.
8. Being green earns customers’ respect and lowers costs too. Consider new ways to recycle, be more energy efficient, design better stores, reduce emissions, and encourage environmental values.
9. Be prepared to pounce on your customers’ fickle interests. When assortments are kept fresh, customers tend to visit stores more often.
10. Give staff permission to fail so innovation won’t be stifled. A culture that allows for risk-taking and early adoption of technology can pay off handsomely.

Read the “New Rules of Retail” white paper.

(from oracle)