NBK Retail boss reviews The Retail Summit

Natalie Berg, retail analyst and Founder of NBK Retail, has given her five key takeaways from The Retail Summit, which took place this week in Dubai.

These include the need for store reinvention and Amazon’s existence making for better retailers. “It’s clear that, even in those mature markets that are contending with an oversupply of retail space, store reinvention is not optional. But all of the retailers I spoke to were optimistic – some even oozing with enthusiasm – about the future of retail, acknowledging that there will be losers along the way, but the ones that survive this transition will be better retailers as a result,” Berg said in a blog post.

As for the A word, “everyone I spoke to was quick to acknowledge that there’s no such thing as being ‘Amazon-proof’, but equally that Amazon isn’t the be all and end all of retail. Many CEOs were keen to point out the fact that the company can’t do curation, community, experience, discovery, personalisation – all the things Miya Knights and I highlight in our book. This also means an end to ‘being all things to all people’ and that we’ll see more specialist, disruptive retailers popping up, catering to specific customer needs and styles,” she commented.

“Equally, Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed, told me how the Amazon/Whole Foods deal was actually beneficial in that it stimulated demand for online grocery in the US (although in the process it also created stronger competition as legacy retailers upped their game). Huang’s point echoes past comments from CEOs of Ocado and Instacart, the latter even referring to Amazon/Whole Foods as a blessing in disguise.”

Read the full blog post here.