New Normal

We keep talking about being customer-centric, and retail is where the rubber hits the road, as it used to be the place where products meet real customers. This highly fragmented industry represented in 2019 more than $26 trillion worldwide sales. If we go back 200 years, all retail was a small “mom-and-pop store” business. Their “Good Morning Madame Smith” business model was based on customer intimacy. The merchants knew their customers by name, made recommendations on what they might want to buy, and extended credit. Then, at the beginning of the 19th century, a new business model was introduced by department stores