Small Business Focus 'Innovation in Offline Distribution: Retail as a Service (RaaS)' Presentation
"Changes in Distribution Competition Environment After COVID-19... Need to Reestablish Business Strategies"
It has been argued that 'Retail as a Service (RaaS)' is emerging as an innovative offline distribution channel model in the pandemic situation following COVID-19. Photo by Beta
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] It has been argued that 'Retail as a Service (RaaS)' is emerging as an innovative offline retail channel model after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The Small and Medium Business Research Institute announced on the 4th in its report titled "Innovation in Offline Retail: Retail as a Service (RaaS)" that "RaaS is showing the future of offline retail."
As representative examples of RaaS, the report cited the U.S. company b8ta and South Korea's Makers’ Lab by LOTTE HIMART. It explains that b8ta's RaaS is a store that "provides consumer experience (behavior) data through offline experiential stores (flagship stores, showrooms, etc.) to manufacturers (startups, small and medium ventures, etc.) for product improvement and other uses, and in the future, induces sales by linking online and offline channels."
Since the COVID-19 outbreak early last year, non-face-to-face online shopping has become the trend until recently. However, consumers also want diverse retail channels (O2O, O4O, omnichannel, etc.) and direct offline shopping experiences, so RaaS is emerging as an innovative offline retail channel model in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era. The report also suggests that the public retail channel 'Small and Medium Business Distribution Center,' which operates Happy Department Store and policy stores offline, should benchmark such innovative cases to present the future vision of policy stores.
The report examines overseas RaaS cases including b8ta, U.S. companies Best Buy and Neighborhood Goods, Japan's Shibuya PARCO, and China's Suning Group. It also analyzes domestic cases such as Makers’ Lab, Shinsegae's Style Living, the crowdfunding platform Wadiz, and Emart Town Wolgye Branch.
Lee Jungseop, senior research fellow at the Small and Medium Business Research Institute and author of the report, said, "Based on the characteristics of domestic and international RaaS cases, the public retail channel Small and Medium Business Distribution Center needs to transform into ▲ customer data analysis-type stores ▲ D2C brand product expansion-type stores ▲ startup and small and medium venture-linked stores ▲ customer experience enhancement-type stores ▲ collaboration stores with crowdfunding companies, to offer customers interesting experiences and pursue improvements based on continuous feedback."
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