Toys R Us is a brand that has left behind nothing but nostalgia. This 50’s label used to rule the market before the era of luxurious cell phones. The era passed, trends changed, but Toys R Us didn’t. After the arrival of the most heard term “e-commerce,” the brand failed to create its space online. The company faced technological and competitive setbacks and never overcame them. While other competitors were striving for customer experience and creativity, Toys R Us kept its innovation curve a flatline. On top of it, the absence of mobile applications and personalization created a poor customer experience. It caused the customers’ inclination to grow more towards the substitutes. In contrast to the advanced scenario, all these factors placed Toys R Us in a very conventional brand image.
Today, all I have heard is that the brand is paddling hard, trying to recover from the trauma of shutting down 700 stores.
“You snooze, you lose,” is phrased ideally for businesses that fail to adapt to its setbacks. The adolescence of e-commerce brought many hurdles for businesses with it. Especially in the case of SMEs, the path to success gets blurry due to the setbacks. But what are they? What does a business owner need to know? After research and discussion with some SMEs turned giants and e-business players, I found out the setbacks are significant and common for all. These challenges are capable of shaping a business or throwing out one.
Technology
In a world advancing with voice search, the ones with manual typing are declared outdated. Similarly, the brands which lag in technology lose their plot in the market very easily. Of course, the reason is customer expectations. The customer base can vanish like a snap if their experience isn’t satisfying and content. Buyers expect user-friendly and innovative shopping experiences like mobile apps, chatbots, video demonstrations, and self-checkouts. All of this makes their entire journey engaging and consistent. In contrast to these technological advancements by competitors, how long do you think your static website will be able to survive? Clearly, outdated technology is no worse than lack of technology. In both cases, SMEs suffer the most. Neither can they lure new customers, not the older ones.
Another reason is the internal flaws created by outdated or lack of technology in business. An aging system that serves no purpose leads to inefficient operations and a critical flaw. These legacy systems often result in poor manufacturing, sluggish order processing, and weak customer support. As a result of the lack of advanced technology, its after effects eat up the entire system, and before anyone knows what went wrong, it’s too late.
Unclear Brand Image
Impression and communication are the ingredients for setting up a brand identity and building it. From the user’s first visit to their lifelong loyalty, they are the key drivers of the customer’s journey. Unfortunately, this is one element where many small and medium enterprises fail.
Communication is the constant touch a brand maintains to provide value and insight. This touch occurs through both internal and external support channels such as customer support systems. But these systems become a setback when they fail in providing reliable assistance to customers. This automatically shakes the brand image to the core. A shaky image in the market impacts goodwill.
As a buyer, would you purchase from a brand with poor website structure, uncategorized product display, or has a handful of negative reviews? No one will, because in this case, the brand has itself ruined its image by being inconsistent in living up to its own standard. This is likely to happen at any scale of small, medium, or large enterprise.
Competition
Despite my admiration for Toys R Us’ design and innovative manufacturing, no one can ignore that the competition has taken it. Now in the presence of Hamley’s and others, no one misses the former. This example defines that competition spares no one. It comes in many faces. It could be the neighborhood brand that is often displayed on top in Amazon listings or the same brand that is responsible for consumer shift and your cart drop-offs.
Competition is one such deadly setback that is beyond our control, particularly for an inexperienced business owner. Plus, a major limiting factor for the business is the presence of established brands and substitutes in the field. Here, established firms are often responsible for generating competition through their tactics which cause the market to shift. SMEs cannot handle such a shift, and neither do they have the cost to put in any other marketing campaign to tackle it. These setbacks become beyond our control and weaken the gameplay of a brand.
Logistics
Businesses get moving when products move. I am talking about logistics, the backbone of business operations. This less-talked-about delivery system is crucial for interacting physically with customers and earning their loyalty. Unfortunately, most companies never pay any attention to logistics, and they end up with a powerless storage and delivery system. When a brand fails in timely product shipment, then customers doubt their inability to sell and to serve them.
A poor warehouse with stagnant inventory and low maintenance facilities affects every item. If such an item or product is shipped, and that too with lack of appropriate shipping equipment, the product is stamped to break. These loopholes in logistics and shipment stops the growth of distribution.
The sail to success is difficult to navigate here. Every brand faces similar challenges throughout its lifespan. However, there is always a way to fix things. To address these challenges, the best approach is to fill inefficiencies and create robust mechanisms across the board. Using these strategies, you can transform the company from the ground up.
Here’s what you can do!
From Shipping to Satisfaction
No one wants to receive a parcel that is 48 hours late!
Thus, by creating a seamless delivery process, a brand can achieve customer satisfaction. Here, primarily a brand needs to automate and simplify its internal shipping process. An automated process gets connected with various departments such as order processing and customer support. This makes the entire shipment process interconnected and simplified with quick communication. With the information flow becoming easy, the chances of mishaps also reduces.
Through automation, managing stock becomes less complicated. Here, a business gets insight into which products are profitable and which require more sales attention. Plus, since the system is updated with every order request with minute details, the warehouse manages to execute every order without any error. Once all this falls into place, timely shipment becomes easy and possible. Furthermore, the presence of a fully automated application in the system provides order tracking. This order tracking is the icing on the cake for a customer. The customer gets to track their order and they eventually get impressed by this level of transparency by the brand. This way, a brand overcomes one of its greatest setbacks by improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Start with Basics
Previously, I mentioned how sales drop when high-tech features such as video demonstrations aren’t present. Meanwhile, I also discussed the lag in operations caused by outdated technology.
To recover from this, all one needs to do is to elevate the basic functions. Here, improving user interaction is a quick and intelligent way. The cart drop-offs and low conversion rates are improved by making the user interaction more engaging. This involves solutions such as making the website user-friendly and developing an in-trend marketing tactic such as a mobile application. Both the tech solutions infused with artificial intelligence enable convenience and increase customer engagement. Another one is to invest in service-based technologies. It will help in elevating the operation. Similar to what brand aggregators do! This will minimize the cost and improve the overall efficiency of the entire system.
If you are a brand in e-commerce, then this is a boon for you! Rightly applied technology will not only generate traffic for sales but will also uplift the entire system.
Scanning Needs and Marketing
The troublesome competition is tackled well by those who scan the behavior of their customers. Many brands simply believe in launching products, but only a winning brand will analyze what more can be done. When Toys R Us failed to detect the current needs of customers, Build-A-Bear made an application where customers can personalize the stuffed toys. Personalization! That’s what the era lacked and created the demand for the same. Through this, Build-A-Bear overcame two setbacks, competition and unclear brand image. The brand not only pulled itself from the setbacks but also went on a road to transformation.
Once the customer gets to know what a brand stands for, competition no longer remains a threat. Also, functions like marketing and sales become easy as people are aware of your uniqueness.
The Winning Move
Between general and winners, which category of brands pick up these solutions? However, why am I treating the brands differently? In this case, winning brands are those who play smart and elevate themselves from their failures through guaranteed hands. These helping hands are from brand aggregators, who rescue these brands from deadly challenges and transform them for the better. Brand aggregators don’t need tips on how to beat the competition or set an image, they know how to slay the setback dragon. Due to this, one brand becomes a market leader while the others remain in the fight. A brand decides what they want in this hustle, whether they should stick to their rigid, old-fashioned strategies and aim blindly at the target or take the new age route to success?
Decide where you want to be?
Cloverbites By Rupesh Sanghavi 
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