Reopening retail; four ways to embrace creativity, safely.

Coronavirus has been the final reckoning for great swathes of retail, and it’s been brutal. Some high street stalwarts (Warehouse, Oasis, Accessorise) won’t open their doors again. Others are tentatively reopening but with a cautious eye on the potential for a second spike in infections. 

With caution front of mind, it might be tempting for retailers to throw creativity to the wind. My plea is don’t. Creativity is what will save you. Creatives - from designers to dancers, architects to digital artists have much to teach us about how to creatively use space, engage within boundaries and bring us together through shared experiences. 

Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing more thoughts on how creatives can help drive a new direction in the post-Covid19 experience and retail economies. However, with more shops opening doors in the coming month I’ll first share a few ideas on how retailers can respond with creativity right now. 

1. Safety doesn’t need to be sterile

It goes without saying that safety is everyone’s priority but that doesn’t mean that the experience of a clean and safe environment needs to be devoid of personality. Touches of creativity will be more welcome than ever.

Let’s consider queuing, which will continue to be a fact of life as we maintain social distancing. Hastily constructed queue systems were erected overnight in supermarket car parks and now we’ve seen lines stretching from Primark and Nike Town and beyond! Let’s make the queue part of the experience! Take a leaf from Disneyworld’s book. 

Ok, you might not be able to build full-scale immersive queue experiences but creative touches will make all the difference. From live music to creative lighting, fragrance to foliage to interactive AR games there are inexpensive ways to make queuing that bit less onerous and a little more enjoyable. 

Similarly, hand sanitising stations are ripe for creative redesigns. Take inspiration from this recent competition, ‘Fountain of Hygiene’ in conjunction with London’s Design Museum and the British Red Cross, challenging designers to reimagine hand sanitising. The winners included a hand sanitising bubble machine, seaweed encased capsules and colour-changing gels. There’s no reason creativity can’t find its way into hand cleaning and even become a moment of fun rather than an anxious reminder of our worst fears. 

2. Use space to create stories (not just sell stuff)

Shops weren’t built for social-distancing but that doesn’t mean retailers can’t use this time as an opportunity to rethink their spaces now - and for the future. During the pandemic we saw supermarkets like Tesco create one-way systems through their stores to reduce contact and manage flow. 

Of course, good store design has always sought to effectively manage the customer journey but has also allowed for an individual’s haphazard browsing and touching. This freedom must be increasingly curtailed and customer footpaths formalised. Now’s the opportunity to make that journey less of a Tesco-esque march through the aisles but more of a path of curated experience.

Some brands are already embracing this model, in January (I know, that seems like a lifetime ago) Canadian outerwear retailer Canada Goose were ahead of their time and opened a new store in Toronto without any inventory. It sounds crazy but it's incredibly clever, because instead customers are treated to a multi-sensory experience so they can understand why its coats have the high price tag.

The entrance to the store is a glass walkway, known as 'The Crevasse', that simulates cracking ice as you walk over it whilst sounds of the arctic echo around you. Customers then enter the ‘Gear Room’ in order to select a coat of their choice before entering ‘The Cold Room’ where freezing arctic conditions are replicated up to -12 degrees celsius, including real snow. The walls display original films about cold and nature in an excellent example of brand storytelling. If the ‘Cold Room’ has done its job, customers can order in-store and if they live locally have the item delivered to their home that same day, or the next day nationwide.

Think how exciting would it be if more brands took customers on a journey through the heritage, production or inspiration behind a range using touch-free technologies or at-a-distance artistic installations? This might be especially relevant for luxury or experience-driven D2C brands who can build bespoke spaces cemented in brand story and heritage. Similarly D2C brands may have greater agility to move their retail operations to more ‘Corona-friendly’ spaces that offer greater space and a blank canvas for creativity.

Curated, C-19-safe pop-ups are a bright idea for brands seeking to re-engage with fans on the floor. In fact, this is exactly what younger generations are craving. In my previous piece I wrote about the hunger younger consumers have for in-store experiences with almost all members of Generation Z preferring to shop in bricks-and-mortar stores. 

They have money to buy but frivolous spending will be curtailed in exchange for spend that delivers meaningful returns beyond the shopping bag. What have they learned? How has their life been improved? What memories have they made?

3. Blend physical and digital 

On the heels of a successful fully digital London Fashion Week my fandom of phygital experiences grows ever stronger. The pairing of offline (physical) and online (digital) proved pivotal for brands during lockdown (see my previous blog here! ) and will still prove vital for offline retail navigating this new period of lockdown-light. 

Many brands have worked hard during lockdown to increase their digital presence and make it relevant for increasingly experience-hungry consumers. While Forrester has predicted a 20% drop in non-grocery offline sales, they say it won’t be made up through online purchasing. So now’s the time to translate online engagement to offline retail. Of course, that can only be done by ensuring the safety of shoppers and by giving them a reason to come out. 

4. Get close and cosy with partners

Phygital projects are morphing - take Secret Cinema who paired up with Haagen Daaz to launch its lockdown friendly ‘Secret Sofa’. With travel again allowed, it’s now tapped into the resurgence of Drive-In Cinema, partnering with home of racing cars, Goodwood as its premier venue and speaker brand JBL for in-car audio. Clearly this is a different proposition than redesigning a retail space, but it can teach us a lesson in smart partnership. Four brands, all somewhat curtailed during lockdown can, together offer a smart, social and safe experience by coming together.

This takes creative thinking - how can your retail brand offer more by partnering with others with suitably flexible spaces? Or how can logistical challenges be solved through others’ products? 

When we were called to create an exciting launch environment for a new range of premium Whirlpool appliances we recognised that placing, what some might argue as a less "sexy" product, against leaders their respective luxury fields next to each other would make for a more engaging experience for the customers and allow for a cross-population of audience.

We developed the award winning five-day pop-up 'Keeping up with the Jones's", a walk through multi-room experience where visitors had the chance to walk through a fridge into a massive dishwasher where they enjoyed a macaron in the shape of a Finish tablet. It was then onto a Bang & Olufsen room decked out with their latest product range where we had an original soundscape created, which was brought to life by people stroking the speakers. Finally everyone moved into the "garden" where Tanqueray 10 cocktails were served out of washing machines we had converted into cocktail makers. Each brand involved benefited from the other, whist the individual product highlights were enhanced rather than lost.

Reimagining retail for the better, not just for now  

According to eConsultancy, just 14% of shoppers in the UK will return to stores ‘immediately’ as they reopen. It will be months, maybe years before shoppers return in their pre-COVID numbers. However, as WARC’s Annabel Hamill says, retail stores must “find a new balance between bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce,” and “expect a boom in click and collect at ‘multi-function’ stores, pre-booking shopping slots online, seamless delivery, and more”. All of these functional elements underpin a COVID-ready retail strategy but fail to make the connection between the safe-shopping demands of now, and the experience-first demands of the future. 

Of course, retailers need to ensure safety as they reopen their doors, but why can’t they go a step further and underpin safe shopping with the foundations of creativity we will need to thrive in the post-Corona experience economy? 

Meredith O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of experience consultancy, Meredith Collective. She has dedicated her life to the world of creativity. From working in the heady world of 90's nightclubs to advising multinationals on how to benefit from changing consumer trends she inherently understands what makes people tick. Described as an experiential wizard, she is an award winning creative powerhouse who delights in helping brands emotionally engage with their target markets whilst gaining market share in original and bold ways.

Her work is regularly featured in the global media from Vogue to The Independent, BBC to CBS. Whilst brands such as Whirlpool, Manolo Blahnik and Warner Bros leverage her original thinking and strategic approach across their channels.

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