I Wouldn't Give Up on Brick & Mortar Just Yet
Kelley Troia
Corporate Event Producer | Experiential Strategist | Creating Unforgettable, High-Impact Events in New Orleans & Beyond
I went to the mall over the weekend with my 12 year old daughter for the first time in a very long time. Typically, we just hop on our computer and purchase what we need online - including shoes, clothes, everything but groceries.
We are heading to Jamaica this coming week for Thanksgiving and we wanted a few items for our trip. We visited two different large retailers and through the course of those experiences, I realized 2 things. One, it's a great bonding experience to physically shop with my daughter - to try things on, point things out, help each other find the right size and color. Two, the actual physical retail experience and the assortment flat out sucked.
This is where the trade off occurs - if I knew that I could find what I was looking for when I visited a store (not just style but size, as well), I'd be much more inclined to go to that store. Right now, the physical retail experience is pretty much a crap shoot. But I doubt I'm telling you anything that isn't already abundantly clear. What was striking to me, is that I do miss the process. Mainly, the process of experience with my daughter. The experience without technology, devices; the smartphone or computer. The retailer that reduces/eliminates the friction between the offline & online experience - making it seamless no matter what sales path you choose, will be the obvious winner (duh).
Perhaps it would be beneficial to be able to choose the items you want to try on in advance online so they can be there waiting for you in the store to try on? And then leverage the StitchFix model of having other suggested items that would pair well with those clothes based on your size & style. This helps with the upsell & bundling (cha-ching).
I share all this simply to say that I wouldn't give up on brick & mortar just yet. There's tremendous opportunity for the retailer who reinvents this experience.
Creative Problem Solver | Retail Co-Innovation Leader | Marketing Technologist
5 年Spot on Kelley! The store eill never go away and will thrive for those retailers that simplify and uplift the experience. I love being in physical retail and especially retail that combines technology not to interrupt the experience but to enhance it.
Colorist
6 年That is what we are doing at REI. Infact the future of REI depends upon this!
Executive Creative Director, design team leader, experience designer, brand strategist
6 年Agree Kelly, the physical experience—when cultivated—creates sensorial interactions and provokes emotion in ways that are central to the human condition. From the Agora of ancient Greece the trip to the mall with your daughter, the social, intimate and immediate relations with people, places and yes, things makes retail more than a transaction. The convergence of digital technologies with this essentially human modality is what will shape the new emerging retail model, much like we see what is happening in China. More personalized, convenient and anticipatory, the next wave of experiences have the potential to make your next trip to the mall worth it.
Corporate Event Producer | Experiential Strategist | Creating Unforgettable, High-Impact Events in New Orleans & Beyond
6 年Right?! Exactly!! And I loved seeing the groups of teens congregating in the food court for a bite... I'd love to be part of the B&M reinvention. It's not dead. It just needs a serious makeover and a retailer with the guts to flip the script.
Context is everything! | Brand Strategy | Nature | Ethnography
6 年Agree! Coincidentally, I went to the mall yesterday too. I assumed on a Sunday after the NFL game, it would be desolate. it was packed! And dare I say, "bustling"?! Like you, I have a real soft spot for the B&M retail experience. In cultural anthropology, the act of 'shopping' goes way way back and has such historical meaning and significance to culture. Also like you, yesterday I felt a wave of warm nostalgia as I watched folks chat and eat at the food court. I saw moms and daughters in Sephora looking at glittery things. I saw boys enthralled at Lego. I saw a whole family leave Foot Locker with 8 pairs of shoes. Retail, largely a real estate endeavor, just became too oversaturated. Americans have more retail square footage per person than any nation. I sincerely hope that a fearless brand flips the model, leverages the cheap/vacant spaces, and innovates from human insight vs statistical modeling. Things become perceived as "inconvenient" when we sense they have lost human meaning to us. Shopping, and retail, allowed itself be deemed inconvenient. I'm with you Kelley!