New buzzwords are constantly being invented to help describe the emerging new retail world. A lot of the focus is around digital, but not in the ways you might always expect.
Online shopping is the obvious and immediate incarnation of digital, and Amazon is the poster child for clicks versus bricks. Amazon overtook Walmart in 2010 as the brand with the highest worth on the planet, according to a study titled Digital Reshapes Retail. That study notes how “in a relatively short period since its founding as an online book merchant, Amazon – with no stores – has (become)… a disruptive force transforming retail into a multichannel phenomenon”.
That’s fascinating in itself and highlights the revelation that Amazon’s success has nothing to do with bits and bytes, and everything to do with a relentless customer focus. They’re not just a great online retailer, but also a great retailer full stop.
But beyond web-based e-commerce, the lines between the physical and digital worlds of retail are blurring. One of the new buzz words of retail trends to emerge in the US last year was “mashops”, a word meaning a “mash-up” of bricks and mortar and interactivity. Similarly, the Integer Group, a global shopper marketing agency, has coined the term ‘digitail’ to describe the convergence of digital and retail.
In terms of the store itself, it’s becoming harder to tell where the walls stop and the technology starts. QR codes are proliferating on ticketing, allowing customers and sales assistants alike to scan tickets with their smartphones and instantly get more product information.
‘Endless aisles’ are popping up – terminals or iPads locked to a retailer’s website, letting customers jump online and order in store if they can’t find what they’re looking for. Innovative interactive displays are everywhere, like 77 Kids NYC Style Lab, with a high-tech photo booth that takes a shot of a child, pastes it into a rock band clip and beams the image onto a four-storey digital billboard in Times Square, (check the video below).
Outside of the shop, the traditional path to purchase is being shattered by the smartphone, and the birth of what Tim Greenhaigh at design consultancy Fitch calls the “always-on consumer”.
As Greenhaigh notes, the simple act of popping out to the shops is disappearing, because “shopping is anywhere and everywhere, as are my friends, all 1500 of them!”.
Before too long, the idea of the ‘mashop’ will be less “gee whiz” and more “of course”. Tech will roll seamlessly into store and right back out again.
But as of right now, it’s still important to consider how you can make best use of technology – in helping your customer on the journey to the store, and then entertaining, informing and interacting with them in the physical environment.
So… how are you pushing your customers’ buttons?
Jon Bird is CEO of specialist retail marketing agency IdeaWorks and Chairman of Octomedia, publisher of Inside Retail. Email jon.bird@ideaworks.com.au. For more retail insights and inspiration, visit www.newretailblog.com.
