Inside Outdoor Winter 2018

I t’s really quite interesting, even somewhat amusing, to look back at predictions from the early days of ecommerce that signaled the death of independent and specialty retail. Physi- cal stores sitting anywhere on the “long tail,” we were told, would never survive the endless aisles and race to zero run by e-commerce giants. Likewise, the Mom & Pop experience, it was assumed, could not compete with the Minority Report -type tech that larger retailers ultimately would deploy. Years later, those predictions still make some sense, and could come to pass. In the interim, we have seen almost the opposite of what was supposed to happen in terms of how the specialty model is being impacted by the online sales explo- sion and the related emergence of the digital- commerce experience. That’s not to suggest IT and technology haven’t become increasingly important to all channels of retail, or that new innovations can be ignored. There is some evidence, however, that independent dealers might not be best served – at least not yet – by trying to “out-tech” the digital realm or somehow bringing “the digital experience to the physical store.” Specialty dealers might be better off maintaining focus on a few select ways technology can improve the customer experience, including less capex-intense cloud and software- as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, while doubling down on the things that have always made the specialty store experience special. Namely, that includes smart customer service, local connections, curated selections and a welcoming environment. A real-deal, 10,000-foot view of specialty retailtechnology investment By Martin Vilaboy Inside Outdoor | Winter 2018 28