The Choice of Products is Killing the Markets

After years of consolidation, product choice has been sharply limited throughout the broad business spectrum… retail, manufacturing, services, communications, etc. As products are eliminated from shelves because they don’t drive profits hard and fast enough, and services fall victim to the same logic, new opportunities emerge for savvy Entrepreneurs who identify the underserved market gaps left by the “bigs.”

From grocery stores, whose mainstay brands like Hormel Foods and Campbell’s Soup have lost appeal with younger audiences, to clothing retailers like Macy’s and JCPenney, whose sales continually decline, major chains have sacrificed new-product development.

In the big-box world, profit pressures compel major corporations to repurpose, aggregate and target-market essentially the same product multiple ways. These pressures have pushed major corporations further away from aggressive research-and-development pursuits. After years of frantic nonstop merger/acquisition and corporate-takeover activity, the available pool of original products, services and content is greatly diminished.

And while struggling retailers may be closing brick-and-mortar stores and malls at a record pace, mom-and-pop businesses on Main Street will experience a revival. Entrepreneurs who understand how to create consumer environments with a personal touch and unique product lines will be on trend to stand apart from the bottom-line merger/acquisition culture so pervasive today.

Yes, online shopping will continue to grow, but not in all categories.

Brick-and-mortar businesses are here to stay. The boutique business model – a personalized business that reflects the quality and uniqueness of the market it serves – is the antidote to the slow death of giant retailers who fail to recognize emerging trends and fail to provide value that reflects consumer needs and interests.

The “bigs” took the style out of shopping. New generations of consumers, especially millennials, are craving a shopping “experience” that speaks to them.

In the 1980s and ’90s, many Main Street mom-and-pop stores were put out of business by malls, which became community gathering places for shopping, fun and dining. Today, that trend has reversed: The decline of malls will give rise to brick-and-mortar businesses on Main Street, especially in towns near major metropolitan areas.

- Source, King World News, Read More Here