Don’t sell! Build an amazing brand experience, and then it will just naturally happen.

Apple’s Angela Ahrendts famously said, ”I don’t want to be sold to when I walk into a store. Don’t sell! No! Because that’s a turn-off. Build an amazing brand experience, and then it will just naturally happen”

Luxury and Fashion brands, understanding the strengths and opportunities of their different retail channels in driving sales, brand affinity and customer loyalty. They have to unite all their individual retail channels under a strong brand value proposition.Then, they need to bring this value proposition to life as a strong customer-centric experience in stores and otherwise.

According to Unity Marketing’s president during Initiatives in Art and Culture’s Gold: Trends, Techniques and Transparency conference.

"Consumers are familiar with the traditional display case setup found in jewelry boutiques, but the retail strategy no longer appeals to many millennial shoppers. Retailers in the jewelry space begin with the challenge of selling items that are not essential, but by emphasizing the consumer’s perception into boutique layouts, sales may increase through emotional motivators.

We tend to think of retail as a product-oriented business, but in reality it’s a people business, and that’s why you really have to focus your attention to people — the customer, the sales people and that people interaction, People do want products for some sort of product experience, but much more than that its about the people side of the retailing business.What you’re selling and presenting in your store is special products, for special people and that’s what you want to keep your focus on, the special side of what you’re doing.

Consumer perception of a storefront situation is rooted in emotion and experience, Brian Wansink’s dining experience experiment that explores how presentation and atmosphere can alter how an individual accesses reality. During his experiment, Dr. Wansink served diners the same meal, but some were presented the food on paper plates while others were given theirs on fine china with a proper table setting. Although the food served was the same the subjects were affected by the outside forces pertaining to the surrounding elements, and the same is true for consumers in a retail setting.

Essentially, a successful retail strategy relies on the brand’s understanding of its consumers and shopping motivators such as need, product, features, affordability and most importantly, emotion.Retailers must turn nonessential to an active verb by translating need into desire. This is best achieved in a retail setting where consumers have the opportunity to interact with pieces through engaging displays because the more time spent in a store, the more likely an individual is to purchase an item

But the strategy is easier said than done, for retailers to increase consumer involvement and time spent in-store.

The seven steps for retailers are as follows:-

1. Engage and involve by engaging the consumer at every touch point

2. Evoke curiosity through accessibility and avoiding coming off as pretentious

3. Contagious, electric quality that will draw consumers into a boutique as to encourage time spent

4. Convergence of a brand’s atmosphere, store design and merchandise to tell a special and unique narrative

5. Authenticity

6. Offer the right price/value for products sold

7. Accessibility that places importance making the consumer feel special

Retailing is not about the “food,” but how you set the table and serve it, along with understanding the emotions of the consumer.retailing is not about selling product anymore.

Product is everywhere, anything you want, anytime you want to get it, you can get it — it’s just everywhere,“Product is not what makes you special, it’s people that make you special and that’s where the authenticity comes in, that’s where your concept comes in.

Thats why [consumers] want to come in and look you in the eye. They've done all the research, but they want to come in and look in your eye and say, ‘Are you a man that I can trust to buy from?’, ‘Do I trust the store?’, ‘Are you telling me the truth?’

Retail is no longer about selling products. It’s about the people and understanding the product experience, not the product itself. Retailing is really a people business, the products are just what we’re trading money for, it’s really about the people, and that’s ultimately the secret.