Experience at Forefront of Store of the Future

Retail stores as we know it are going to change. If you think continuing along with traditional retail business models will bring success, think again, says Doug Stephens, retail & consumer futurist and founder of Retail Prophet. “If you’re not disrupting yourself, you’re going to be disrupted. It’s your choice. It needs to become a cultural battle cry.”Stephens – who spent more than 20 years in the retail industry before starting Retail Prophet – will look at where the industry has come from, where it is now and where it is going during his Shopper Marketing Summit general session presentation in March. “It’s a story,” he says, “and within that story, there’s a way that retailers can set a new path to the future.”Demographic, economic, media and technology changes have been, and will continue, to shake up the industry. We have an aging population, Baby Boomer spending is declining, and while Millennials have technological expectations of brands, they also want memorable and physical experiences, says Stephens.Economically, value has been polarized. “Consumers now seek either the easy, cheap and low-friction option, or the rich, experiential and high-quality option,” he says. “The middle is gone.”Earned media and reputation have replaced buying ads. Garnering the former and building the latter takes doing or creating something unique and valuable that people love. “This requires enormous levels of creativity, conviction and effort,” says Stephens, “but it’s the surest way to develop a following.”Technology in retail is no longer solely about inventory management or enterprise software. Mobile, virtual reality, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics and more means technology investments have direct impacts on the customer experience.Stephens expects virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies to drive online experiences in the future that allow shoppers to actually see, interact with and perhaps even feel the products. That transformation will force physical stores to up their game – become more immersive and experiential.“Many stores today are merely glorified warehouses that offer very little opportunity for customers to actually experience the products they’re shopping for,” he says. “The store of the future will be a place we go to be inspired, entertained, educated and enthralled.”Some retailers are already headed this way. Stephens cites Pirch, Sonos Store, Adidas NYC and TOMS Venice Beach as not “stores so much as interactive portals to the brand.” But he’s quick to add that not every experience needs to be high-touch. By eliminating the checkout, Amazon Go created an extraordinary experience. “It’s as much about editing elements out,” he says, “as it is about adding them in.”As you look to do your own disruption, Stephens suggests you stop asking how big the store should be and ask how big the experiences inside the store will be. Then design the space you need. Don’t try to create digital experiences in-store. Figure out the customer need and the customer journey and what’s required by those. Treat your store as media, and media as a store.“Use every piece of media – social, television, print, etc. – to create a buying moment,” Stephens says. “Make it possible for customers to actually buy what you sell directly from media just like it was a store. Likewise, use your stores to tell a brand story, create interest and interaction with products and draw them into your brand’s ecosystem.”All of this change and disruption? Stephens considers it a rebirth and beginning of the golden age of retailing, noting that the recession was a horrible but valuable cleansing of the industry. It is a time to move beyond sprawl, concrete boxes, cheap goods and downgrading the role of those who work in retail. “I see it all as a brilliant time in retail,” he says. “A return to the true art and science of wonderful customer experiences.”

Experience at Forefront of Store of the Future

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