Top Articles: Augmented Retail
Week 48, 2018
There’s no doubt that e-commerce has changed the retail industry forever. The truth is that consumers don’t need to go to physical stores anymore because they can purchase anything online. However, the future of retail will not exist purely in the digital world. Retail of the future will combine and rely equally on digital and physical experiences. Retailers are bringing the ease of online shopping to experiences that are only possible in real life. Several global brands are already jumping head first into these models with very promising results. It’s only a matter of time before this model becomes ubiquitous.
Nike’s Huge New Flagship Looks Like the Future of Retail
By Katharine Schwab from Fast Company
Nike has been investing heavily in the user experience behind physical retail. Their new flagship store is trying to make shopping in the real world as convenient as shopping online. For example, “Speed Shop” lets users reserve shoes online to try on in the store, request items to be placed in a fitting room, and check out from their phones. This is all made possible through hyper-responsive location and personalized data. Essentially, there is no longer a clear distinction between digital and physical, which is exactly what the future of retail is all about.
For Birchbox and Glamsquad, It’s All About Clicks and Mortar
By Emma Hinchliffe from Fortune
There is an interesting turn-around happening in retail. Scalability for the modern retail brand involves coming back into the physical world. Digital-native brands are increasingly entering the physical retail space. However, instead of renting out their own spaces, they are generally setting up pop-up shops in existing stores or partnering with legacy brands. With all the talk of retail apocalypse, it’s interesting to see that investing in physical retail is considered de-risking the business of these digital brands.
The Hot New Trend in Luxury Retail? Not Selling Anything
By Dhani Mau from Fashionista
Going to a store to shop is so last year. This year, luxury brands are redesigning their physical spaces as places to hang out. “Cultural hubs” and experimental popups are creating immersive experiences for young consumers who don’t care for physical shopping. In a way, this is a new revenue stream where the product is the experience. Sometimes inventory is there, but more often than not, there are no physical products in these hubs. Millennials spend twice the amount of money on experiences than baby boomers, so that’s what these brands are trying to capitalize on.
Amazon Is Dominant Online, but Local Retail Still Has Advantages Jeff Bezos Can’t Replicate
By Kara Swisher from Recode
The immeasurable Kara Swisher has written this op-ed about her experience of trying to furnish her new home. From the perspective of a consumer, Swisher describes how frustrating old models of retail are for consumers now that we are so used to the Amazon model. However, she does comment on three key ways that local retailers kept her business: creativity, human customer service, and uniqueness. In her opinion, these key features are what set retail stores apart from Amazon. Of course, she is just one person with one experience, but she is also an expert in the retail and tech spaces.
The Future Of Brick-And-Mortar Retail Is Mobile
By Jason Goldberg from Forbes
Forrester estimates that over half of all purchases are digitally influenced. This means that regardless of purchases made online or in store, people do their research before buying. As a result of this, people expect to get the same kind of information whether they are in a physical or digital store. Imagine being able to go to a grocery store and use your phone to scan a piece of fruit and learn where it was grown, sugar content, customer reviews, etc. Well, this is actually possible today in China. Right now smartphones are the vehicles for these types of transactions, but mobile technology may not rely on phones for much longer. The point is that digital and physical are one in the same.
Amazon’s Emphasis on ‘The Turkey 5’ Reveals Black Friday and Cyber Monday as We Know Them Are Dying
By Dennis Green from Business Insider
In the US, it was Black Friday this past week. Traditionally a day when sales bring revenues in the black, the whole concept of this retail holidays are experiencing a shift. The sales now last for 5 days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, and the actual Black Friday day has the fewest number of sales. This is a pattern that has been showing up for years, so it’s only a matter of time before Black Friday is replaced with the appropriate neologism, “The Turkey 5.”
