Note from our CEO:

With much of our world beginning to heal from the pandemic’s impact, the challenges facing the business world are beginning to look different. The turbulent day-to-day fueled by COVID-19 seems to be behind us, but it’s clear that the past year has left a long-lasting impact on consumers, companies, and market trends in its wake.  

Digital continues to remain a key component to success in every industry, impacting workforces and consumers alike. Inside this newsletter, you’ll find the most recent insights from our industry experts on how to leverage digital and other strategies to position your organization for success throughout this year and beyond. 

Spring Spotlight:

Before I share some of the insights from our teams, I want to highlight some of the contributions of our female leaders. The women at SSA & Company provide incredible value to our firm and clients every day. In honor of Women’s History Month, we asked a few of them to reflect on their biggest accomplishments and share their favorite piece of career advice. Read their reflections here.

1. COVID has Set the Stage for Drug Stores’ Next Evolution

The pandemic has accelerated new consumer shopping behaviors, and chain drug stores need to adapt to the challenges and ­opportunities. In their next stage of evolution, stores will need to expand fulfillment while streamlining operations and maintain the ability to quickly identify key changes in buying behavior. Technologies such as BOPIS will continue to thrive, requiring seamless integration of digital and physical, and stores can begin to leverage customer data to curate hyper-personalized monthly subscription offerings. To succeed through these intense times and beyond, drug stores need to get on board with all of the new ways consumers want to engage and get their purchases delivered: subscriptions and curbside are just two ways.

Read the full extent of our expert’s insights into the future of the chain drug store industry here.

2. Digital Transformation is Revolutionizing Insurance 

Insurance will continue to change rapidly over the next decade, furthering trends that have already begun. In this multi-part series for Digital Insurance, we explore key technologies and trends that will drive both analog and digital transformation in the industry over the next decade.

• Part I: Insurance Must Take On Workplace’s Headwinds With Digital Transformation – Based on our experience working with major carriers, brokers, reinsurers, and digital service providers, as well as through market research and interviews with industry experts, we have pared down the changes to the insurance industry to seven key trends to consider for sustained excellence and continued margin expansion in an increasingly digital market.
• Part II: The Insurance Back Office Is Being Revolutionized – AI, blockchain, analytics, BI, automation, & other emerging technologies will fundamentally change how risk is assessed, how products are developed, and how customers interact with insurers. These new technologies will impact not only the traditional back-office functions but also middle- and front-office functions.

3. How 2020 Changed Digital Transformation

Last year, digital transformation accelerated and shifted corporate innovation from a “nice to have” to necessity and sparked innovation for many companies. Organizations across various industries had to act fast to engage customers at home and implement services and UI that were manageable for the onslaught of digital “newcomers.” We saw retail leverage AR to power try-before-you-buy services, financial services partner with fintechs to serve clients at home, and healthcare embrace telehealth services for patients and providers. Now that the fires have been put out, leaders need to take a step back and determine if what they’ve implemented is still the best solution and that it is sustainable for the long term.

Read our reflections on how digital transformation changed and predictions for the future here.

4. Tackling the Talent Crisis

Industries are facing a crisis of talent and dealing with massive shifts to workplace function and culture. Insurance carriers are rising to the challenge, beginning to tap into non-traditional talent pools and re-branding to attract millennials, digital natives, and undergraduates at a rapid rate. These changes, along with the new needs of a more flexible, hybrid workforce, show that it’s clear that a massive shift is needed within insurance in recruiting, talent management, and digital adoption techniques. To meet the needs of a younger, more digital workforce, companies will have to make overhauls to their workplace culture, hiring and talent deployment strategies, external partnerships, and internal leadership to remain competitive.

Read our strategies to navigate the talent crisis in insurance here.

5. Tech-Turbocharged Thrift Has Only One Way to Go

The circular economy has gone through dramatic, digital- and mobile-accelerated changes in the last few years which leave us wondering, can actual sales volumes and profits sustainably deliver on and justify the rocket-high valuations some resale companies are getting? Re-commerce has grown more than 20 times faster than the new apparel market in the last three years, making us believe it is not only here to stay but poised to sustain substantial growth for the foreseeable future. Factors like the price-value equation, mobile and social technology, a broad shift to remote work and school, and environmental benefits are all fundamental factors in the trend of re-commerce becoming a deliberate purchasing behavior for a wide range of consumers. 

Read our full analysis of the success of resale companies like The RealReal, Poshmark, and ThredUp here.

Featured in the Press:  

• Why Etsy Bought Depop
• Have Home Retailers Peaked?
• Post-COVID Loyalty Strategies: Keep New Customers, Perfect Data Collection, and Act on Every Insight
• How the Rise of the Conscious Consumer is Fueling Resale’s Rapid Growth
• Fragrance Sales Pick Up as Consumers Reengage With the Outside World

Company Updates: 

Celebrating the Volunteer Efforts of Our Employees for National Volunteer Month 

We encourage our employees to support causes and organizations they find meaningful and are proud to provide hours away from work annually to give back. Read reflections from some of our employees and learn about the amazing organizations they support here.

To read more from our experts and stay up to date on our latest content, visit our Insights Page.

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