A (Near) Postmortem Review: What Sears Did Wrong

It’s official: after filing for bankruptcy Monday, Sears is on its last legs.

Once the Amazon of its day, the retail giant’s meteoric rise, multi-generational dominance, steady decline, and eventual obsolescence reads like a cautionary tale in the death of offline retail. And with the demise of Sears and many traditional shopping malls standing vacant or glaringly under-occupied, there’s ample evidence that offline retail is dead.

But the key word here is offline, and this is the critical distinction that Sears failed to understand.

Retail is alive, kicking, and highly connective.

As Wikipedia defines it, “Online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state, specifically an internet connection.”

The only retail that is dead is retail that is offline — retail that is not connective. And connective in this case doesn’t refer to simply the Internet of Things (IoT) and the ubiquity of digital devices. In the age of the connected consumer, “connectivity” isn’t just about having all the latest digital bells and whistles, though that’s important. It’s about promoting meaningful interconnection both on and offline.

Virtual spaces are giving way to digitally connective physical places.

A fascinating phenomenon is taking place. At the peak of digital domination, at the apparent apex of e-commerce, offline retail is making a comeback, only this time, on entirely different terms. In this retail renaissance, the best of aspects of digital augment a physical environment for a richly sensory, highly individualized, mood-boosting customer experience.

The future of retail lies at the creative crossroads of architecture, interior design, digital analytics, and marketing.  

Going forward, retail, as we’re pioneering it at Zen Media, looks more like a pop-up art installment than a traditional display; more like an interactive experience than something you watch; more like a deliberately designed path to sensory stimulation, aesthetic inspiration, and need satisfaction than a simple search for a physical product.

At Zen Media, my team and I have long been raising retail from the dead. With a powerful combination of digital innovation, marketing moxie, architectural know-how, and creative design, we revive retail through digitally connective optimization, bringing brands online in places customers go to kindle their imagination and become inspired.

Digital innovation caters to the connected consumer.

Retail stores that are successfully adapting to the needs of connected consumers are using IoT infrastructure to capitalize on the tech that is already literally in the hands of their patrons. Shoppers use chat-based tools on their mobile devices to get product information, contact a live sales assistant, and use navigation tools to find their product in a store.

Digitally connective retail anticipates the shopper’s needs, generating real-time information and customized communications. By integrating digital shopping assistance technology into the built environment via interactive displays, voice-activated service, and IoT applications, shoppers receive high levels of support while enjoying unprecedented levels of independence.

While Sears was closing its doors all over the nation over the last few years, Target was scaling for the connected consumer by updating its app with Bluetooth and beacon technology to take its brick-and-data customer experience to the next level. Sears was taking on water like the Titanic; Target was and continues to thrive.    

Passive to active: The shift from virtual use to in-person engagement.  

Albert Einstein said a problem couldn’t be solved on the same level it was created, and that each new stage of progress solves the problems that came before. The problems of the digital age are being solved by a shift from disembodied virtual domains to physical environments that promote connection, experiences, and creativity.

While these environments utilize state-of-the-art technology, it takes a back seat to real-world experiences. Brick-and-data retail enhances the physical shopping experience rather than digitally dismantling or replacing it. That’s why cutting-edge companies are designing physical places that engage users actively instead of passively.  

A brand that’s setting the tone.

Tom Ford’s newest standalone store in Covent Garden, London is a perfect example of a brand doing digitally connective physical experiences right. The store features digital scent-sampling tables, virtual lip color matching mirrors, LED screens with customized cosmetic and style tutorials, to name but a few and more. It’s all an homage to digital at its most futuristic.

Digitally-connective retail isn’t just for luxury brands.

Digitally connective retail doesn’t have to be “sophisticated” or “fancy” in order to inspire active engagement. A couple of examples? Target, as we mentioned before, has implemented digital very well. Harley Davidson reports having achieved “high-engagement customer experiences across all retail channels – including improving and expanding the company’s global digital capabilities by evolving the Harley-Davidson.com experience to integrate with and enhance the dealership retail experience for existing and new customers.”

Think third places and hubs of hospitality.

According to Ray Oldenburg, your first places is your home and who you live with. Your second place is where you work. Your third places are the hubs in between, like cafes, libraries, restaurants, or parks. Third places bring all different types of people together to creatively mix and mingle. In the early 20th century, Sears was opening a store every other day and served as a third place to millions of Americans. Men and women met and mingled in different departments, socializing in an environment that gave them what they needed physically and socially. Brands who continue to provide a third place to their consumers will thrive in the retail renaissance.

5 Value Propositions for the Digital Age

1. The future of retail lies in mixed-use verticals where retail shops play multiple roles, hybrids of commercial and social use that function as community hubs.
2. Exclusively virtual spaces must give way (or at least be linked) to digitally connective physical places.
3. Digital technology is only as good as the sense-stimulating, mood-boosting, human connection-promoting experiences it facilitates.
4. Digital connectivity exists not only to enhance traditional retail but to completely re-envision the brand and guest experience.
5. Digital customer service cannot substitute for the meaningful and personally significant experiences that deliver true service to customers.

Retail’s resurrection as brick-and-data is just getting started. Companies that grasp the new terms on which retail is being written for the connected consumer stand to defy the odds of obsolescence to which Sears succumbed and thrive in an age of expanding possibility. Evolution marches on, and those who march with rather than against it are those who will pioneer the frontiers of the future.   

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Shama Hyder is CEO of Zen Media, a leading marketing and new media consultancy, a best-selling author, and an internationally renowned keynote speaker.

As seen previously on Forbes.