Underwhelming financial results from traditional retailers indicate that customers are spending elsewhere.

I recently met with Catharina Eklof, SVP Global Merchant Development and Victor de Kock, Strategic Merchants and Acceptance at Mastercard to discuss some of the emerging trends in merchant payments, the changing shopping environment and how the financial services company is innovating to address the needs of the ‘connected customer'.

As shopping habits change, Julia Ahlfeldt suggests traditional retailers develop strategies that embrace digital as the touchpoint of choice and focus more on what their customers want in-store, which is experience, convenience, integration and personalisation.

Gareth Pearson, CEO of BMi Research, agrees. He says local consumers are undergoing fundamental behavioural shifts in the way they shop – before, during and after they hit the stores.

A Nielsen survey, which polled online consumers across 63 countries, shows that South Africans are outpacing other countries in terms of online mobile adoption. "Mobile commerce has enormous implications for the entire retail ecosystem," says Nielsen SA country head Bryan Sun. He says mobile devices are enabling a more customised experience, as products and services can be more closely tailored to behaviours, needs and preferences, Colleen Goko reports.

Reitumetse Pitso says that while some retailers performed better than expected in their efforts to accelerate sales during the festive season, others delivered a ‘mixed bag'.

And according to Amanda Stops, CEO of South African Council of Shopping Centres, retail success has become about constantly evolving to adapt, remain relevant and be appealing to customers.

As an endnote, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce Lauren Hartzenberg, the new Retail Editor effective Wednesday, 1 February, as I succeed Beverley Klein as Editor: Marketing & Media. Due to the industry overlap, I'm sure this won't be the last time you'll be hearing from me.

Stay connected now...


Comment online in our ed's column archive. Go mobile with apps and m.bizcommunity.com. Engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Subscribe to YouTube and via RSS. Send all your retail news and event invitations to retailnews@bizcommunity.com, exclusive opinion pieces to contributors-retail@bizcommunity.com and international news to internationalnews@bizcommunity.com. Read "How to contribute to Biz, from op-ed pieces to news".