VRM ( Vendor Relationship Management )
VRM covers a spectrum of decentralised vendor engagement tools that allow consumers to manage their relationships with vendors.
Dependent on your individual perspective, VRM can be anything from the hard core ideological beliefs of the ‘movement’s’ original proponents to diluted vendor friendly tools such as comparison sites.
Arise the Vassal Vendor aka VRM light
In 2021 merely taking a regardant stance beckoning consumers into flocking around a brand is no longer an option for vendors. This power shift towards the consume also sees a raising of their expectations from the vendors that they choose to transact with both on and offline.
There is room for a more nuanced and balanced VRM model, one that satiates the consumer appetite for choice and control and at the same time gives vendors the opportunity to capitalise on this. Even for offline retail, VRM could transform retailers perception of showrooming as a threat in an opportunity.