Chris Jones talks why we still matter in an ever growing Digital eCommerce age.

1. © Chris Jones 2016
Chris Jones
Redsock.biz
chris.jones@redsock.biz
+44 7770 647038
www.linkedin.com/in/redsock
Ireland eCommerce Expo 2016
Man vs Machine
Why humans still matter in Digital retailing

2. © Chris Jones 2016
A quick stroll through Dublin city centre yesterday 2

3. © Chris Jones 2016
Chris Jones
Redsock.biz
chris.jones@redsock.biz
+44 7770 647038
www.linkedin.com/in/redsock
Ireland eCommerce Expo 2016 v2
Man Ireland vs Machine
Why humans still matter in Digital retailing

4. © Chris Jones 2016
Agenda 4
Agenda
1. About Me
2. Which Countries?
3. Which Customers?
4. Key Considerations & Roadmap
5. Practicalities
6. Costing & Timing

5. © Chris Jones 2016
Agenda 5
Agenda
1. About Me
2. Which Countries?
3. Which Customers?
4. Key Considerations & Roadmap
5. Practicalities
6. Costing & Timing

6. © Chris Jones 2016
About Me - Overview 6
Interim Global
eCommerce Director
for Dr Martens
Even more fun stuff…
11 years freelance multichannel consultant
Fun Stuff
Working globally with
Mars to help their
Digital Transformation
Interim Projects
Director
Client experience in
16 countries
© Chris Jones 2015

7. © Chris Jones 2016
Stories from overseas
Effectively all UK retail growth (non-food) in the last 10 years has
come from eCommerce

8. © Chris Jones 2016
The choice

9. © Chris Jones 2016
Sub-optimal outcomes… 9
By the way, lots of retailers have preferred to select the “die”
option…

10. © Chris Jones 2016
So what if we don’t want the “die” option?
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

11. © Chris Jones 2016
Price
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

12. © Chris Jones 2016
Differentiating by price…

13. © Chris Jones 2016
Price competition: an option for Irish retailers or brands?
Amazon 10K 2013:
“We strive to offer our customers the lowest prices
possible through:
• low everyday product pricing
• shipping offers, including through membership in
Amazon Prime
• improving our operating efficiencies so that we
can continue to lower prices for our customers.”
Highly automated. Robots
scraping competitor sites.
A victory for the machine!

14. © Chris Jones 2016
So what if we don’t want the “die” option?
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

15. © Chris Jones 2016
Information: new roles for new people?

16. © Chris Jones 2016
Information: verdict: score draw; man 1 machine 1.

17. © Chris Jones 2016
So what if we don’t want the “die” option?
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

18. © Chris Jones 2016
Convenience

19. © Chris Jones 2016
Convenience: possible, but all those UK retailers can do it to
Marks & Spencer

20. © Chris Jones 2016
Convenience: …and it’s expensive

21. © Chris Jones 2016
So what if we don’t want the “die” option?
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

22. © Chris Jones 2016
Experience?
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

23. © Chris Jones 2016
At first glance, this looks impossible
It seems to mean competing with some huge technology budgets
(Ireland 0 Big Guys 1?)

24. © Chris Jones 2016
But western Europe or the US are anomalies in the world of eCommerce
In most eCommerce countries, including some of the biggest, someone else takes
care of the big technology budgets for you…

25. © Chris Jones 2016
Platforms and marketplaces are where the action is in many countries…
…leaving you free to focus on being you: Man 1 Machine 0
Tmall, China
URL: clarins.tmall.com

26. © Chris Jones 2016
…and they’re also where around 2 billion consumers start their shopping
…leaving you free to focus on being you: Man 1 Machine 0
Rakuten, Japan
URL: rakuten.ne.jp/gold/adidas

27. © Chris Jones 2016
Range: a choice for Irish retailers and brands
P Price Price Transparency
R Range Do we try to stock “everything” in our categories?
I Information Many shoppers visiting for research not purchase
C Convenience
Are we more convenient than competitors? Faster
shipping, better policies?
E Experience
“Everything Else”
If everything else were equal, would consumers
prefer to shop here or elsewhere?

28. © Chris Jones 2016
Option A: Ireland vs the machines of the world
Expected outcome: Ireland 0 Machines 1

29. © Chris Jones 2016
Option B: ride some dragons!
Expected outcome: Ireland 1 Machines 0

30. © Chris Jones 2016
Option B: ride some dragons!
Expected outcome: Ireland 1 Machines 0
An Irish retailer or brand’s USP in a
world of predatory digital
machines is unlikely to be:
Price
Information
Convenience or
Experience
But being Irish is a USP in itself…
…if you go where the other things
don’t matter or get taken care of
for you, and where western
products have premium value

31. © Chris Jones 2016
Further reading 31
As you might guess from the title, I
wrote this for the English!
But there’s still lots of information in
it you might find interesting.
http://www.redsock.biz/a-nation-of-shopkeepers.pdf

32. © Chris Jones 2016
Thank you for listening!
Chris Jones
Redsock.biz
chris.jones@redsock.biz
+44 (0)7770 647038
www.linkedin/in/redsock