Globally, retailers and suppliers face a challenging business environment. Consumers increasingly make conflicting demands from low prices and convenience to high quality and service. Leading edge players, such as Wal-Mart, continually raise the bar, forcing both retailers and suppliers to chase a moving target. Suppliers must contend with a more consolidated retailing industry whose powerful players make difficult demands. Added to all of this are several economic influences that threaten growth and margins. These include disinflation, constraints on US growth, and a backlash against globalization. The latter includes a backlash against large, modern retailers.
On the other hand, a number of factors in the business environment are providing new growth opportunities for consumer business. These include rapid growth in key emerging markets such as China, the expansion of home ownership and consumer credit in these markets, and the rising importance of women as economic decision makers. Moreover, global retailers and suppliers are scouring the globe in search of low cost sourcing opportunities, thereby providing their customers with lower prices and a more differentiated offer.
In this new report from Deloitte Research, Dr. Ira Kalish examines in detail the business environment now facing retailers and suppliers and looks at the strategies they must adopt in order to survive and prosper. These include clearly differentiating in order to avoid margin-destroying price competition, branding, offering a compelling shopping experience, continually innovating, seeking new revenue opportunities, and always being strategically flexible.
Read the full report, in the PDF below.
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