How can retailers compete with Amazon, which continues to wow with its innovations, rapid delivery options, successful appeal to consumers, and effective pricing? One journalist took notes during recent shopping experiences with a variety of its competitors and came away with some specific and detailed suggestions for each of them. For example, Macy’s has a great online presence, but the inventory in stores is often messy and seemingly overstocked, without sufficient on-duty personnel to keep the experience moving along nicely. Thus it might need to reorient its focus on quality, rather than quantity, in its inventory strategy. In contrast, this author finds Lord & Taylor’s online presence tedious and difficult, suggesting its need to address the simple execution of its offer: enabling people to select and pay for the items they want to buy. With its omnichannel approach, JCPenney seemed great, until the author tried to order something that was out of stock. Rather than deal effectively with the problem by leveraging its multiple channels, the retailer just cancelled the order, leaving the author with the sense that it was not exploiting its omnichannel potential to its full extent. This author also notes that none of these issues is uncommon, and they might not even be completely avoidable. But, as he asks dramatically, “Given Amazon’s prowess, is there a plausible explanation as to why competitors are not taking every possible action to save themselves and their customers before being annihilated?”

Source: Ken Lonyai, Retail Wire, January 12, 2016