I Want My Mtv
Digital market places will follow the path of cable television and we cannot get there fast enough.
Most all of us subscribe to cable television in one form or another. We have access to 100’s of channels and most likely regularly watch only 6 ‘ish’ of them. If we take a look at those 6, we can probably make some fairly accurate guesses about this person and what they might be interested in. As an example, if someone’s six included the DIY network, the PBR channel, CMT, ESPN, HBO and Fox News you could probably make certain assumptions that may not be too far off. When this person considers shopping either on-line or in-store, you can again probably make some well founded assumptions.
E-commerce is now officially the go-to shopping platform in a pandemic world. Consumers can shop comfortably and, most importantly, safely from home. Walmart, Target, Amazon and other large digital retailers have been the big winners in 2020, but so have some of the other less behemoth digital retailers prospered. If a retailer has not been engaged in digital commerce up to this point, they are either frantically adding it or they may likely soon perish. The result is a flooding of even more web-sites and digital choices to purchase goods and services on line. Interestingly, many of these additions are from brands featuring lifestyle or category specific products they want to sell. There is no way a consumer can keep up unless they stumble across something on a search and even then may choose to go back to their preferred/known digital retailer that sells the type of product they are looking for.(This story may be starting to sound familiar).
Cable channels specialized over time. Today, if you want to watch golf, you can simply go to The Golf Channel. If you want to watch something associated with the environment/animals you flip to Nat Geo. No matter what you are interested in, you can find a channel with plenty of programming that will fill any craving you may have. Cooking, music, home repair, culture, you name it and it is out there. We will soon see the same from digital market places or on-line malls specializing in a specific lifestyle or consumer interest. Effectively, a natural cataloging will occur to simplify search and provide access to products and services based on consumer interest or lifestyle.
If you are a creative or crafty person, etsy.com is a great place for you to shop. If you are interested in sneaker/streetwear collaborations, check out thedrop.com. For fashion conscious consumers seeking a social site to buy and sell products, poshmark.com is there to service their needs. What distinguishes these sites is that individuals, retailers, brands and the like can sell directly on these sites reaching consumers interested in a specific lifestyle or category of product. Amazon has a market place, Walmart & Target have market places, and there are so many more popping up every month. With everyone and their brother now entering digital commerce, it only makes sense that these types of market places will start rapidly appearing on-line targeting specific groups of consumers sharing a common interest. Again, this is what we saw on cable television and the consolidation into like minded market places makes sense.
So what does this mean for brands and retailers? This consolidation will most likely happen rapidly given the extreme focus on digital commerce. Brands will need to keep up, identify potential partners, and build relationships early. How a brand shows up on these sites and how pricing is managed will be critical. Embracing market places and having a strategy will provide a great alternative to the big A. Retailers will probably need to do the same, but also give thought to how any market place can help them better service their local consumers. Market places that are more turn key for retailers, allowing them to get into the game (if they are not already digital), providing a platform to manage inventory and link to a POS will be more enticing. How market places, brands and retailers come together will be important. Communication, like everything in life will be key. This change is happening now and my sense is that it will only accelerate in 2021.
As always, thoughts, comments and additions are always welcome. If you would like to read any of the other opinion papers that I have been writing this summer, please be sure to visit mozaiclab.com and click on blog.