The "new" consumer

Recently, I have attend a UX gathering where the presenter was sharing her experience when she has attended the Retail Innovation Conference that was held in May 2016 in New York City. There were couple of points she made that I thought it’s worth sharing here.

The Rise of the Blue Dot Consumer

Ken Hughes - the consumer and shopper behaviourist - said that if you are using one of the paper maps, as an individual you need to know where you are located in relation to the wider world. However, in a smartphone, the device automatically locates you and shows you as a “Blue Dot”. He continued by saying: "Blue Dot consumer is not a small part of a big world; they are the world, and they are at its centre. Today in retail, everything is about the shopper". Briefly, what Hughes says is as a company you no longer provide your product and expect the shoppers to come to you - You go to them instead.

So, how can a retailer bring their products to customers? Spud.ca is a great example for this - a grocery delivery company. The company not only shared their products online but they also do online delivery that many grocery stores still don't. Recently, some of the big builders like Bosa started to work with Spud and now while you are away at work, your groceries can be delivered to cold storage facilities under your condo’s basement. You no longer need to go out for shopping, it comes to your home! Another good example was Jones Soda. Jones soda didn't compete with Coke like big companies through marketing channels, instead they brought their drinks to small business and meet with their consumers for the first time which made them end up as a multi-million dollar soda company. Now, if you are wondering how you can reach these Blue Dot consumer, Hughes mentions that you need to follow 4 main principles - PACE: Personalization, Authenticity, Contextual, Experiential. If you would like to know more about these, simply shout me a message and I will be happy to share. 

Everyone is a VIP

Another trend that already started to happen is to give the feeling of VIP to the consumer. Some of the good examples of this is Bonobos Clothing company in US. They allow consumers to try the clothing on before they buy at one of their guideshops. Their motto is simple: “No crowds. One-on-one service. Exactly what you want, delivered right to your door.” Just reading the sentence makes you feel like VIP! It seems like a simple idea and easy to be thought. However, not many clothing companies apply personalized 1-on-1 shopping experience. 

Use technology as enabler

Thanks to all advanced gadgets we have, we feel like we can solve everything with technology. The truth is technology is not the solution to everything, it’s just an enabler. When you were a kid, if you ever tried to burn a sugar, you probably wouldn't succeed. As sugar doesn’t burn on its own, it only melts. However, when you try the burning process by adding ash to the sugar, you will notice that the sugar will start to burn. This is a simple chemistry where ash works as accelerator (catalyst) to complete missing piece in formula. Technology is the same in a way. Use it to enable customer interaction. Having a mirror in dressing room is a good idea and quite common. However, having an interactive mirror can enable users to request for size change or colour change without leaving the changing room and/or look for an attendee! Boarding passes in cellphone is another great example to this subject.

Here is a challenge for the day - If you would need to add an entire kids' clothing section to a physical location without increasing the physical retail space, how could you achieve that? Write your answers to comments sections.