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What are the most successful and least successful retail experiences recently and currently being developed, both in brick and mortar stores, and digitally?
Thank you for your question on the most and least successful retail experiences being developed in both brick and mortar stores as well as digitally. The short answer is the most successful retail experience is providing technological innovation coupled with exemplary customer service, while the worst experience is characterized by malfunctioning technology and lack of customer support. The most useful sources are the articles “How Big Brands are Creating Immersive Retail Experiences” and “Retail Flagship Stores Entice Customer with Retail Experiences.” Below you will find a deep dive into our research.
SUCCESSFUL CASE STUDIES:
Today’s consumers are demanding personalized experiences and successful retailer are responding by engaging their senses with technology. Retailers are utilizing their stores to provide their customers the immersive experience they are craving. With the rise of e-commerce, consumers no longer have to visit a store to buy what they want.
The purpose of brick-and-mortar stores must evolve from static merchandise display and use their retail spaces to establish long relationships with customers and give them unique shopping experiences. Flagship stores have common themes revolving around advancements in consumer-engaging technology, exclusivity and in-store experience. These stores typically have unique architectural elements and dramatic interior designs. Technology plays a big part in store improvements and could end up both in success and in failure.
NIKE – Its new 55,000 sq. ft. store in SoHo is designed to deliver the best of Nike’s personalized services, from exclusive trial spaces to product customization. The goal of the store is to create “a seamless link between Nike’s digital and physical platforms.” It is filled with much more merchandise, equipped with a half-court for basketball, a 400 sq. ft. soccer trial zone and simulated treadmills for testing shoes. These allow customers to experience to full effect of products before they purchase items.
Nike also has weekly “Swoosh Saturdays” which include athletic events and celebrity talks. They are meant to bring in large crowds. Nike’s newest store at Broadway and Spring St. drew hundreds of noisy sneaker enthusiasts. These events have attracted throngs of footwear fanatics. This new concept store has created a retail format that is part store, part museum.
Aside from mannequins clothed in Nike ensembles, vintage 1986 Nike Dunk High sneakers are on display in glass boxes, offering an abridged history of the company’s footwear and an interactive feature that allows shoppers to learn more about the company’s timeline and its sneakers. This store is the template the company is rolling out in tourist locales around the world.
Digitally, Nike’s mobile app gives shoppers the opportunity to book individual appointments with experts who can assist them with sports trial and personalizing their athletic gear. Heidi O’Neill, President of Global Direct to Consumer said, “We’re leading the transformation of sport retail – offering the best of Nike products, services and experiences under one roof.” The store boasts of immersive digital trials and in-store experts, all geared to raise every athlete’s potential.
ADIDAS – The brand has a slightly smaller flagship store at 45,000 sq. ft. in Midtown. The layout is similar to a sports arena with a tunneled entrance, locker rooms for testing gear and trial zones for football, basketball and soccer. Claire Midwood, VP of Concepts describes their approach as “stadium retail concept.” The store offers a mini soccer field where customers can test new cleats as well as a treadmill called the “Run Genie” which analyzes the runner’s gait for optimal sneaker recommendation.
“Adidas NYC will constantly challenge the status quo and what consumers expect when they go to a store,” said Mark King, Adidas Group North America President. “We’re giving consumers an experience that’s really authentic to them.” He adds that they do not aim to dictate but to listen and create a future together. The store offers real-time fitness consultations from EXOS trainers, healthy juices and snacks co-created with Brooklyn-based Grass Roots Juicery, a concierge desk, same-day hotel delivery service and personalized shopping experiences. The brand also boasts of reducing waste by using recycled ocean plastic for their hangers and mannequins.
L’OCCITANE – The French cosmetics company’s new flagship location in the Flatiron district focuses on the customization as the key to beauty. The “Smart Beauty Fitting Room” provides their customers with a private and personalized digital platform for browsing and sampling products. The store also offers personal concierge services to clients seeking one-on-one consultations with L’Occitane’s beauty experts. Through the combination of modern technology and human connection, L’Occitane is successfully launching itself into the new immersive era of retail.
Paul Blackburn, Associate Vice President Design & Construction, North America said of their Flatiron store, “From entry to exit, the multisensory boutique works collectively to create both an immersive and individualized shopping experience, offering clients an unparalleled assortment of product and service.”
L’Occitane commissioned the young, cutting edge creating agency School House as lead designers who created a modern interpretation of abstracted design, art, digital and cultural and environmental innovations. Upon entering guests experience a sensorial journey where they can discover and enjoy L’Occitane’s collection of products. Representing the heart of the brick-and-mortar retail transaction, the staff and its culture are vital to transmitting a neo-Provencal aura and to establish the community aspect of the store. Staff training pivots on the ‘Art of Living’ where little distinction is made between work and play. They help create an air of hospitality that brings a most human dimension that cannot be replicated by e-commerce.
RALPH LAUREN – In their flagship store in New York, Ralph Lauren has created a digital fitting room experience with the introduction of interactive touch-screen mirrors. The Fifth Ave. flagship store is home to connected fitting rooms that merge digital technology with in-store retail. This innovation is meant to remove friction from the customer experience and help the company make smarter merchandising decisions.
While in the fitting room, shoppers can browse through the store’s inventory, interact with a sales associate, and request a different color and size of the item through these touch-screen mirrors. The customer can also take full control of the fitting room lighting, ranging from settings like “Fifth Ave. Daylight” to “Evening at the Polo Bar.” The mirror also auto-recommends items to complete the look that’s being tried on, which provides a great opportunity to personalize item recommendations and to cross-sell. For shoppers who need to need more time to decide, the mirror can text details of the merchandise for later purchase, which creates a lingering interaction with the brand and an opportunity to follow up with customers long after they’ve left the store.
Since the installation of smart-mirror fitting rooms by retail technology platform Oak Labs, the store has seen a 90% rate of engagement, which is higher than the company expected. Oak Labs CEO Healy Cypher said, “Consumers are outpacing the ability of retail.” He said that Oak Lab’s goal is to provide technology that fits into an overall in-store brand experienced that’s enhanced by digital.
YETI – The cooler company has opened its flagship store in Austin, Texas. Corey Maynard, VP of Marketing said, “It’s meant to be much more of an immersive Yeti-experience – it’s our version of Disneyland – than it is to be a transactional space.” Their goal is for guests to have fun with the Yeti brand and see it in the three-dimensional world so they came up with a store that feels very much like a museum, complete with a variety of displays and marquee exhibits.
The approach is a smart move for Yeti. While they already feature a robust online store, the brand’s main customers are actually other retailers – and running the flagship store more like a museum than a place with a shopping imperative. The ultimate goal is year-round brand activation that gives people a chance to interact with Yeti.
UNDER ARMOUR – their Brand Houses around the country include features like a wearables bar and an OptoJump interactive feature that measures the height a person jumps.
J.C. PENNEY – This department store has found some success in creating a “store-within-a-store” model. For example, they added Sephora locations and expanded their product selection.
SUNGLASS HUT – features an interactive sunglass display called “Social Sun” that allows customers to take and share pictures of themselves.
LULEMON – Its flagship store in New York has an interactive, touch-screen mirror that helps customers discover local fitness studies.
CONVERSE – Shoppers can customize products like shoes or hoodies with their own designs using the Ink Bar and there are graphic designers on hand to assist with the process.
UNSUCCESSFUL CASE STUDIES
Since e-commerce have been threatening brick-and-mortar stores, retailers have been trying to make their stores operate more like the web. Yet, despite splurging on cutting edge technology, they have fallen behind their online rivals. Recent efforts – such as QR codes which can be scanned with a smartphone and Internet kiosks – are either too advanced or behind for customers so they haven’t been fully embraced, according to Brendan Witcher, an expert on retail strategies at Forrester. He said that people will try them for novelty’s sake but it won’t stick. (8)
PRADA – When the company opened its Manhattan flagship, it promised a radically new shopping experience. Prada hired hotshot architect Rem Koolhaas and that generated a lot of interest. It was the first of four “epicenter” stores around the world that would combine cutting-edge architecture and 21st century customer service to revolutionize the luxury experience. The staff would be armed with PDAs to check stock availability and customers could do the same through touch screens in the dressing rooms.
Unfortunately, the floor plan couldn't accommodate the sheer volume of visitors. The sales associates were often directing traffic, especially on weekends when crowds squeezed through the basement’s main artery which was only a few feet wide. And most of the technology sits idle, abandoned by employees who never quite embraced computing chic and they were overwhelmed by large crowds. Many gadgets such as automated dressing-room doors and touchscreens are malfunctioning or ignored. It seems that they had incorporated technology for technology’s sake and it seems the investment has failed to enhance the customer experience.
H & M – The store promised innovative retail technology in its Times Square flagship store. It has a runway where shoppers could show off the clothes they were trying on, accompanied by music and an in-store DJ. Video of the runway walks would be projected to huge LED screens outside the store. The store would also have devices that shoppers can use to check out inside fitting rooms, interactive mannequins and more. Unfortunately, the LED screens displayed still images or blurry graphics. There were no obvious way to check out in the dressing rooms. There were a few iPads near the entrance for browsing HM.com and sign up for membership. The interactive mannequins were not available. The runway was also a bit difficult to find and the DJ was not present at all times. The situation is similar to Prada’s store opening where technology ended up malfunctioning or not used. An H & M representative released a statement that all systems are working but some areas are shut down for maintenance periodically due to the popularity of the technology.
MACY’S – The department store is an example of the struggle many stores are facing. The trend of offering the same merchandise year after year has failed to impress shoppers and selling other companies’ products, meaning its brand is limited to the chain of stores alone. Nowadays, branded merchandise is available through so many channels and bringing customers in to browse the hottest products is difficult.
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, the most successful retail experience is through the use of innovative technology to give the consumer an immersive experience, supported by exemplary customer service. On the other hand, technology could also cause the worst retail experience when it malfunctions and creates frustration for both the customer and the staff. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
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