05 Dec Retail Newsflash: Einstein was a genius

No real reason to hold the phone for the heading of this blog – it’s pretty much an accepted fact that Albert was way above average intelligence. But here’s why it’s relevant to today’s retail environment and as a result this piece of writing… because here’s how Albert described insanity*:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Hold that thought. Now let’s talk about the fact that we have asked and answered the legitimacy of the brick and mortar environment – it’s here to stay! With this now being further confirmed by several traditionally online retailers moving from clicks to bricks –  Welcome Amazon, Warby Parker, and now SA’s own Yuppiechef to the world of brick and mortar! But here’s the question: can these online retailers bring their savvy, data-centric perspective to this space? Can they change things up so that traditional “gut” decisions are replaced by hard fact? Because the reality is, that should these players be able to seamlessly transition from online, then our traditional physical store retailers are really going to have to jump onboard an unfamiliar data train and do it with haste.

So this is a shout out to retailers in the physical space… this is no time to be doing things the way you have done them for the last 20 years – it’s  time to rise to the challenge and accept the new reality. And let’s hope that we can all look back over the next few years and marvel at how sanity prevailed.

If your complacency is leaving your store vulnerable to the onslaught of online giants, click here to get advice from one of our award-winning retail analytics experts. We may not be Einstein, but we’re still pretty damn smart.

*It is contested as to whether Einstein was the first person to quote this definition of insanity, but the point of this blog still stands – whoever said it was a genius!