“Experience centers” are the future of physical retail
“Experience centers” are the future of physical retail
Publication by Eric Adler
488 Words | 5 min
A lot is being written about the major changes “disruption” within retail and other industries. In retail it is primarily about how e-commerce is taking the business away from traditional business models and how customers experience (patterns) have changed, and retail has to adapt.
I will not minimize the influence of e-commerce during these times, but even as Jeff Bezos has pointed out in the past, it is still a minor part of the total retail business turnover. I have commented previously on the need to find the balance between “brick and mortar” and e-commerce and make sure that they supplement each other, so that the customer experiences a full and complete offer which reflects their needs. My feeling is that we will see more pure e-commerce businesses start to also develop “brick and mortar” stores/retail points, possibly with a different goal or purpose than just sales, maybe in the direction of “experience centers” being able to experience the range and supporting the brand, or possibly a combination of both.
An area when working with all retail points, is to have a retail concept which, when implemented, is clear for the consumer as representing the brand. The concept is about layout, product placement, services offered, local market relevance, consumer oriented solutions, product communication, trade dress etc. Key to the success is the understanding by co-workers of the what and the why of the concept which has been developed and implemented. The expansion team when implementing the new store, will most probably have a proven process to implement the concept correctly. This also means that to secure that the brand is being perceived in the way that the company would like, the concept which supports the brand, has to be kept alive in the store/retail point at all times and therefor the need for co-workers to understand the “what and the why” of the concept. Then of course, guidelines, ways of working and the how to do it, must be developed and available.
Working with a concept means also to secure and follow up the day to day implementation and securing that it is correctly implemented (an audit). This can be done in many different ways and is sometimes perceived as the police are coming to check. My experience is that using the audit as a training opportunity (back to the what and why) is beneficial for all involved and takes the sting away, especially if the follow up (audit) result is not so good.
So yes, e-commerce is playing an important role in the changes that retail businesses are going through, but brick and mortar has an even more important role to play now and in the future in the customer experience. Therefor it is critical for companies to secure that the retail concept is implemented correctly, understood and followed up so that the consumer perceives the brand in a positive and clear way for all retail points.
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Eric Adler
POLITICAL SCIENTIST | BUSINESS MENTOR
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Eric is a true global citizen, having lived and worked in different parts of the world and cultures. With his background as political scientist and the experience in a variety of leadership positions in different industries, Eric brings added value to contextualize the conceptual business approach when mentoring organisations to achieve growth.
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