№20 — A new retail customer experience
Everyone talks about how Amazon is destroying retail and no regular retail store stands a chance. Maybe this is true for old-fashioned retail stores but I am convinced that innovative store concepts still have a great chance of success. Therefore, Michael, Chaitanya and I spent most of our Sydney reunion in Munich visiting different shop concepts — pretty cliché for three people working in consulting. But what are you going to do there if you’ve seen the Marienplatz, the Eisbachwelle or the Allianz-Arena?
What does a shop have to offer to be more interesting than just buying it online? From my perspective instant availability, sampling the products, and “touching” before buying are three important factors. The instant availability is under heavy fire by Amazon Prime but the other two things are hard to beat.
There is one place where sampling is an essential part of the business model — a market. And sampling we did. The stands at the Viktualienmarkt offered us samples of different kinds and of things we would never buy — but we were very convinced by the free samples so we ended up buying a bunch of stuff.
Another great place for trying before deciding is “Vom Fass”. It’s been around for quite some time but I’ve never been so far. We tried many different liquors and one of them — a German spelt whisky — convinced me enough to buy a small bottle.
The greatest place of them all, though, is Globetrotter. A German outdoor shop that really does not make me want to buy online. To give you an impression: it is a four story shop with every outdoor equipment you can imagine. But it is not just a warehouse like Decathlon — you actually feel like being in an experience-focused concept store.
During our visit, they had different slacklines to try out, we visited the cold room (my jacket was not made for -25°C), we tried the stability of our shoes on some on different surfaces, were able to test different sleeping mats on different surfaces, and briefly we thought about visiting the rain room to see if our clothing really is water proof.
Globetrotter is a prime example of a new retail experience that really can set you apart from online shopping, even though the prices might not be the lowest you can find. But checking out if your new skiing jacket is really warm enough for -25°C before buying it is worth a small premium.
Lastly, Läderrach is a store that I also noted for its extraordinary customer experience. They do not sell you prepacked chocolate but break it off from a large chunk. If you ask them nicely, you can sample a whole bar of chocolate before buying. Really great to decide on all of the awesome flavors they have. It was already a highlight of a previous visit to Basel (apart from Mittlere Brücke, of course) but their shop in Munich is also worth visiting, albeit not as great.
While this is not one of the usual experiences, it was an interesting thing to do. Discussing the different shop concepts with Chaitanya and Michael was a lot of fun and since I am very interested in retail in general, it was a very entertaining Saturday. Also, I am not sponsored by any of those companies, unfortunately.
