Translating Retail
One of the biggest retail events of the year takes place in Paris on the 29th September – 01 October 2014, it is the World Retail Congress. This year the theme is “Retailing in a disrupted world”. As retail faces new challenges with new technology “disrupting” the old ways of shopping and consumers behave differently, business models and strategies need to reflect this. This is especially true in my world of internationalisation and translation.
As some of you know K international works with global retail brands, helping them to put their products on shelves all over the world by providing a language translation service specifically tailored to the retail sector. If you are an emerging retailer and look to expand into new markets, we have the experience and knowledge to assist you in your journey. If you are already established in new markets we can work with you to improve the translation and artwork processes to smoothly run your linguistic operations. We supply a quality retail translation service starting with product specification and description and finishing on the translation of your technology solutions. At all times we work alongside our clients and in line with their brand message.
Translating the Millennial’s Message
Attending the congress will give us a chance to listen to retail experts and network with retailers from all over the world. We have been more and more involved in translation for the development of Omi channel retailing solutions, in particular, mobile applications, below I listed the presentations that promise to be very interesting.
One of the presentations I am definitely going to attend is “What Millennials Want – The Future of Retail” presented by Deborah Patton, Founder, Applied Brilliance and by Maryleigh Bliss, Millennial, Journalist and Author, Ypulse. Deborah and Maryleigh will share their thoughts on the preferences, influences and habits that drive the new generation of shoppers. I look forward to the presentation which will not only be interesting but also consolidating current meaningful data.
Joe Tripodi, Global CMO from the Coca-Cola Company will present “Coca Cola’s view on the Millenials”. Being one myself I am intrigued to find out the Coca Cola`s analysis of my generation.
Shopping on smartphone and tablet has increased by 18 per cent in the past year alone, the shift to using mobile phones has been phenomenal. Research from Harvard Business School showed that on average Americans spend around 12 per cent of their total time (410 minutes ) shopping on their mobiles (or cell phones). Another study conducted by Flurry shows that people spend 162 minutes per day on their mobile devices.
Data is gathered as we speak, the Big Data of retail. Information collected during usage of the mobile phone applications enables retailers to tailor their assortment, prices and offers accordingly. Modern consumers became used to low price offers which (all other things being equal) means quality is now a very important factor, studying consumers individually make tailoring these offers possible and effective.
Redefining the Shopping Experience
“How to redefine the shopping experience with mobile engagement” presented by Danielle Anderson, Director of Digital Experience, Harris + Hoole and Pingki Houang, COO, Showroomprive.com will present ways of consumer engagement on multichannel platforms.
They will be joined by speakers Valérie Dassier, Director of E-Commerce et Director of Marketing, Comptoir des cotonniers et Princesse Tam Tam, Malcolm Pinkerton, Research Director – E-Commerce, Planet Retail and by Hari Shetty, VP & Global Head of Retail, Wipro Technologies.
Big Data Matters
Michael Klein, Director of Industry Strategy, Adobe Marketing Cloud, along with Steve Robinson, CEO, ACHICA.com will join with Grégory Gazagne, Managing Director Europe, Criteo to present “This isn’t big data, but data that matters”. Between them, a great experience and outstanding accomplishments in the retail world, this presentation promises to be truly great. They will demonstrate how applying data-driven customer insight into the decision-making process can create meaningful value and lead to increased profitability. Big Data and mobile phone applications will no doubt be mentioned again and I am really looking forward to this presentation.
Another presentation that will tackle the subject of Big Data is “Leveraging location-based analytics: Insights-driven retail for growth” presented by Russell Evans, ShopperTrak , Vice President Marketing. Russel Evans has vast retail experience in retailing across the last 20 years across Canada, the US, Mexico, Germany, UK, France, and Malaysia among other countries. He has also written a series of papers relating to marketing strategies. It will no doubt be a must-see presentation.
The collection of data across the markets seems to be crucial to success as a brand. Having the mobile phone application translated into as many languages as possible is one of the best and most efficient ways of increasing reach to new regions and driving sales figures up. Considering small overheads included and the ease at which we can ship abroad, the multilingual applications can literally open doors into new markets.
It is important that the terminology used resembles the brand and communicates with customers in the most consisted and efficient way so that the choice is easy and customers do not feel bombarded by information. Translation for mobile phone applications must convey the maximum message in the most minimal form.
Omnichannel Retailing
This year`s World Retail Congress futures discussions about OmniChannel Retailing, trying to reach consumers through all available shopping channels i.e. mobile internet devices, computers, brick and mortar, television, radio, direct mail, catalogue and so on.
“The future is now, are you ready?” presented by Ann Cairns, President at MasterCard, International Markets will touch these subjects. It will highlight how the way we shop online or in-store is changing forever and is being driven by more demanding, empowered consumers. Brick and mortar stores become merely an addition to the supply chain in which purchases may be made by increasingly savvy consumers who enter stores already well-informed about product’s features and prices.
As always the shift to a new way presented new opportunities. Consumers often feel overloaded with information and choice. This caused review websites to be more and more popular as shoppers want to quickly know which product is best suitable for their needs. This, in turn, caused Media monitoring solutions like Google`s “Blog search”, Brands Eye and Monitter to emerge. These satisfy the need to know what consumers were saying about clients brands, campaigns and their people.
“Competing in an omnichannel world” presented by Robin Terrell of Tesco, Group Multi-Channel Director and Hayley Tatum Asda`s, Executive People Director will be taking into consideration social media, mobile and global competition and will highlight how magnificent the Omni Channel move has been with staggering 56% of all interactions being multi-channel. It will be interesting to find out Tesco`s approach and strategy in these tough times for the large retailer and see how they approach the subject of media monitoring. Also, quite something to see the two competitors joining forces for this speech.
Very related and popular subject, “Department Stores: From Yesterday’s dinosaurs to today’s omnichannel masters” presented by VP Sharma, Group CEO, PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk and Maarten De Groot, General Secretary, International Association of Department Stores should introduce successful strategies that transitioned the businesses into the omnichannel master they mention in their title. I am expecting a solid market analysis and interesting, perhaps surprising ideas, definitely ways for use of collected data and conduct in which they have applied the media monitoring results.
Entering New Retail Markets
From our point of view, a successful media monitoring strategy will include a complex study of countries and multilingual markets. A product can sell well in one country but be completely rejected in another and the latter is often because of negative reviews given. Therefore Multilingual Media Monitoring can provide helpful data needed to make strategic decisions like the development of new products or adapting existing one to suit new markets. Similarly, a need for a product can be discovered in a specific country by scanning forums, these are often full of questions like where to buy certain products not currently on the market.
Positive bloggers that become influential often develop relationships with brands they like, becoming a sales force in a way. Making sure the brand is represented well by trusted individuals will add credibility especially if these are early stages of the products in the market. Imagine how many times you have used a service or product because someone recommended it, we tend to trust persons more easily than corporations.
We Can Help
K International can help with Multilingual Media Monitoring. Some of the services we offer include translation and reporting based on existing analysis and reports as well as performing a complete Multilingual Media Monitoring campaigns.
Entering new markets has never been easier and there has never been a better time for it. New technologies and solutions such as mobile phone applications and media monitoring enable retailers to penetrate markets. The information is yours to take. Whatever your area, having a trusted partner will ensure that you reach your consumers in a way that communicates and creates an emotional urge to buy the products, and that you possess the insider knowledge to their habits and preferences.
Entering new markets and highlighting how to make a successful expansion happen will be the topic discussed during “The rules of success for international expansion”delivered by Sir Ian Cheshire, Group Chief Executive, Kingfisher Plc, Philip Mountford, CEO, Hunkemoller, Jesús Echevarría, Inditex, Chief Communications and Corporate Affairs Officer and by Torben Paulin, BoConcept , CEO. Really keen to see whether translation will be mentioned, as this can literally make or break a brand.
Similarly touching on an international and potentially multilingual matters, I look forward to see “The challenges of an international growth strategy: How to develop roadmaps for navigating the world’s retail opportunities” with key speakers being Mortimer Singer, President & CEO, Marvin Traub Associates, Jose Gomez, Senior Vice-President of Business Development, Mango. Mango, in particular, had problems with Hungarian release of their brand and retailer`s name was ridiculed in news and on the social media. Tito Costa Founder & Managing Director of ZALORA and Istvan Kapitany, Executive VP of Global Fuel Retail, Shell will also join forces in the above. I wonder whether communication will be one of the main points mentioned and how the translation piece fits the international puzzle.
This year`s World Retail Congress promises a fantastic arena to share the views and ideas concerning retail, expansion, Omni Channel, media monitoring and more.
I’ll be there and can’t wait to connect with some of my colleagues from the world of international retail. Be very happy to talk about your language challenges and potential retail expansion plans. We are experienced partners to some of the UK’s largest retailers and would love to help you too.
Follow me on Twitter, I’ll be happy to meet up.