Retailpocalypse Now?

If brick and mortar is truly hitting the bricks, what’s advertisers’ next move?

Retailpocalypse Now?

Anywhere from 15% to a 33% of all shopping malls will close in the coming years, analyst estimate. In addition,  8,600-plus stores are forecasted to close in the U.S. this year alone.

Is the retailpocalypse finally here?

Get a grip. We’re experiencing a seismic shift, for sure, but there’s more the story.

And that story begins with fully realizing that consumers are now in control of the customer journey. In doing so, major retail brands, including Apple, Calvin Klein, Microsoft, Nike, and The North Face, have positioned themselves to occupy online marketplaces. Because the customer journey is now driven by user intent, search, in general, and Google Shopping, the online commerce arm of the search giant, specifically, represent the next blue ocean for retailers. (More on that soon.)

E-commerce continues to grow strongly, recording $394.9 billion in 2016, a year-over-year gain of 15%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Analysts predict U.S. e-commerce spend could reach $632 billion by 2020. At the same time, search advertising for retail is all the rage. Google Shopping Ads accounted for 43% of search advertising clicks in 2016, with clicks on mobile up 162% and revenue up 52% year-over-year, according to Merkle. This search-based brand of advertising is so powerful that both Amazon and Apple are exploring their own options.

Why Google Shopping? Why Search?

OK. Now that we’ve established undeniable growth prospects, let’s circle back to the in-control customer. This is where the power of search comes into play. Search is inherently driven by customer intent, when they are most welcoming to relevant results.

In fact, a Google study found that half of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphones visited a store within the same day; a third of searchers on desktop or tablet computers did the same. Google also found that 76% of all consumers who ran “near me” queries with mobile search visited a storefront within 24 hours, and 28% of them made a purchase. This is a different kind of foot traffic—the kind that results in more potential conversions and sales because they’re driven by the same intent that drove them to perform a search in the first place.

While Google Shopping offers huge upside for all digital retailers, it’s also an increasingly competitive space. It’s important to get such details as your product images right, but there’s a big-picture issue here: To outpace your competitors, you need next-generation technology that can keep up with digital’s biggest challenge and opportunity: data

Indeed, there’s an incredible amount of data to deal with, including sales figures, pricing, and product details. Having your team individually managing ads and ad budgets for every single product down to the SKU level will empower them to:

All right. We’ve gone from the possibility of a Retailpocalypse, to e-commerce, to Google Shopping, to the importance of big data.

Next up? Bringing it all together. Here are four tech essentials to master big data for Google Shopping:

1. Data science to parse granular big data: As mentioned, doing business on Google Shopping means having to handle gigantic amounts of data. Your solution needs a way to intelligently parse this big data and distill it into something actionable.

2. Machine learning to optimize over time:Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that lets your technology glean insights from data patterns over time. Machine learning combined with data science can calculate and optimize the advertising budget on every individual item over time. The result? You spend exactly as much as you need to make the most profits.

3. Unlimited reporting: Unlimited storage and processing power that enables you to generate reports in seconds is crucial. When your team can quickly pull reports on Shopping campaigns, they can adapt more quickly to changing market forces and, if necessary, quickly course-correct, even during the busiest of times.

4. Customizability: No two marketing teams are the same. The ability to adjust your Shopping efforts to the specific goals you set out for your team—whether that be launching a new product line or driving up overall profits—is essential.

See? What’s happening in the retail space isn’t gloom and doom. Rather, it’s a powerful change—one that signals a real opportunity for smart retail leaders who can recognize and capitalize on one of the single most important shifts in the market in years. Hopefully, that’s you.