New technology and changing shopper behavior imposes new threats on retailers. Traditionally retailers have been looking for ways to combat those trends or mitigate their risks. That's a very defensive and re-active approach to what's going on in the market.
How about turning the threat into an opportunity and capitalizing on new trends. For example, brick and mortar retailers have always considered the online and mobile solutions as a threat. But slowly we are starting to see retailers actually take more of a pro-active approach and figure out how to use mobile and online shopper behaviors in their own favor in-store. Retailers like Best Buy have figured out ways to benefit from the showrooming shopper behavior and actually encourage shoppers to do what other retailers may be scared of. They figured out how physical stores can offer value that online/mobile cannot, and use the online/mobile behavior to drive their own sales in-store.
Have you seen other examples of retailers capitalizing on shopper and consumer trends that may have been perceived as a threat at first? Can you think of threats that no one has turned into an opportunity yet? Share it in comments!
