Can retail be saved by Norwegian technology companies?

And what services should they offer in addition to selling goods? This is the topic Ole Martin Evensmo of SpringBoard Martech addresses in this article (reproduced from Retailmagasinet).

“Customer-oriented chains try to solve problems, not sell products. Few chains have taken this more seriously recently than Jernia. They have now started renting out tools online in collaboration with the Norwegian technology company Sharefox. Clas Ohlson and several other chains have also implemented similar measures.”

– Ole Martin N. Evensmo, Springboard Martech.

Read the full article on Retail Magasinet.

For years, Norwegian specialist retailers have had service-minded employees and professional expertise as their great strength, but with the growth of online shopping, it has become difficult to maintain this position. However, all hope is not lost. Let’s look at some simple ways to recreate the online trade, with the help of Norwegian tech entrepreneurs.

Let’s start with video. In physical stores, we meet friendly and knowledgeable staff who give us good product guidance. How about using video on your own website to do the same? Norwegian companies like Vibbio and Gobi have created video solutions that make it easy to create and publish short video clips. The only limit is your imagination, but how about starting by filming a shop assistant demonstrating a product and posting it on the relevant product page? It may sound daunting with a range of thousands of products, but then again, Rome wasn’t built in a day. How about starting with the 50 most visited product pages in your online shop?

User-generated content has become more and more common and we are now seeing it more and more in the retail sector as well. Retailers such as Jernia, Kid, ARK Bokhandel and Elektroimportøren have all had success with online product reviews. Recently, the Norwegian tech company Lipscore announced that they doubled their turnover in 2020 and are now experiencing a huge increase in interest in product reviews. Amazon has always been known to be good here, so there is no reason why Norwegian specialist retailers should not be any worse. Customers’ own experiences with a product are an important and relevant supplement to good product texts online and good in-store advice!

It’s not always easy to find your way around a large online store – and the internal search engine is often the solution. The problem is that it’s not always easy to know what to search for. In a physical store, you don’t have to worry about spelling or synonyms; experienced store staff will understand most things. The solution online is to set up a search engine that can handle this kind of challenge. It may sound trivial, but in practice most Norwegian online shops (including specialist retailers) are too poor at search. Some honorable exceptions are Fjellsport and Sprell. There are now a number of Nordic solutions in this domain, including Norwegian TellusR.

Customer-oriented chains try to solve problems, not sell products. Few chains have taken this more seriously recently than Jernia. They have now started renting out tools online in collaboration with the Norwegian technology company Sharefox. Clas Ohlson and several other chains have also implemented similar measures.

We often tend to associate specialist retailers with physical stores and welcoming shop assistants. Hopefully we will also see this in the future, but preferably in combination with new and cost-effective online solutions.

Read the full article on Retail Magasinet.