Business consultant John Stanley urged retailers at Glee today to get out of their comfort zone to embrace change.

In his seminar, titled ‘Business as Usual? There’s nothing usual about it’ in The Knowledge Hub (Hall 4), he said the next five years would see some “exciting stuff”. The accelerating pace of new technology and innovation would mean businesses would have to make new choices. “Don’t let what happened in the past stop your business developing in next few years,” he said. “We have to challenge existing practices in our changing world even if often we don’t know the rules of the game.”

He said every business in the world was at a crossroads – “but please don’t stand there too long. You have to make some decisions.”

He cited Amazon Fresh  – which delivers  fresh plants and flowers to consumers within 24 hours in the US – as an example of change that was unthinkable a few years ago. “And we have online businesses opening High Street stores to promote their online trade.”

Garden Tourism was another “sexy” development. Stanley said  he knew of a garden centre plant manager who took customers on a tour of gardens of Italy. “Are you engaging in things like this,” he asked his audience, “or are you still just trying to sell stuff?.  You have to think more about the end product and and how you are engaging your consumers with it.”

He predicted that ‘Weekday convenience versus weekend experience’ would be a key theme. The need for convenience would mean that within a few years, 30% of garden products would be purchased online. but consumers would still want to visit garden centres for a week-end experience.

Stanley warned against the insanity of “doing the same thing and expecting a different result”.