In this episode of Functional and Fabulous, Gordon and Ger meet with Matthew Brown, a retail trend futurist and founder of Echochamber, a London-based creative retail trend intelligence agency. Matthew guides Gordon and Ger on a customer experience in retail. They explore the key principles of successful retail, discuss the art of creating vibrant shopping districts, and examine the opportunities and challenges of bridging the gap between physical and digital retail.
Click-and-Collect and Beyond
Matthew expresses how Click and Collect is often a service of urgency or necessity. A quick and functional service that helps time-poor customers achieve their goals should be the focus for retailers. He believes there is an opportunity for stores to enhance this service by going beyond the normal service and by introducing added value services.
Successful examples of retailers include Nordstrom Local and Posti. Nordstrom Local offers a range of services beyond click-and-collect, including personal styling, alterations, and even stroller rentals. Posti, a Finnish postal service, provides convenient click-and-collect lockers with additional features like on-site unwrapping and recycling.
Creating Immersive Experiences
Brands are adding sensory experiences to their stores. By appealing to the customers' senses in physical stores, brands can enhance the storytelling of particular products. Examples of these include:
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Smell: Use pleasant scents to create a welcoming atmosphere.
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Sound: Play soothing or upbeat music to enhance the shopping experience.
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Visual elements: Use eye-catching displays and interactive elements to engage customers.
When it comes to ecommerce, it's important to implement the same philosophy. Retailers should apply the same methodologies and focus on the curation of their products and a strong narrative. Look at PDPs and PLPs as your shopfronts. There is also an opportunity for PXPs- Product Experience Page- to offer a more immersive and interactive experience, allowing customers to explore products in greater detail and engage with additional content. Compare these to an unboxing experience of a well-packaged product can create a positive first impression and reinforce the brand's image.
Personalisation and Technology
In physical stores, there is an incentive to display all the stock on the floor, as it cannot be sold if it cannot be seen. When ecommerce sites began, they used to replicate this, as a catalogue of all items. But we are now seeing a growing trend to personlisation. Customers want to see only products that are relevant to them. Look for ways to use technology to tailor the customer journey and focus on limiting distractions. With tailored recommendations, customers will feel less overwhelmed with too many choices and get a better experience.
By focusing on providing a holistic customer experience, embracing personlisation, retailers can differentiate themselves in today's competitive market.
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