If you’ve been watching closely how things are moving in what’s being called ‘the New Retail’, you’ll know how quickly influential market forces are pushing innovation by those willing to try new things.
I put out recently a list of some of the top industry books documenting and informing the changing innovations. For those that get on better with video as a learning tool, this is a great selection of TED talks with some of the most inspiring and motivating stories and concepts that are coming from the continued push toward ‘The New Retail’.
Technology will change retail shopping
but it’s not what you think — Taylor Romero
Technologist Taylor Romero gives an entertaining, upbeat insight into how he turned to online tech and ‘IoT-integrated retail‘ to drive the success of Spruce—a bricks and mortar barbershop & clothing venture he and his wife, Becca, launched in 2015.
Highlight: “Let’s say you’re on your favourite shoe website. You’re browsing around and you find a pair that you like—you want to see if they have them in your size. You click and wait a full minute for the page to load. It gets worse—once the page loads, you see they don’t even have them in your size. So why is it, when you go into a shoe store, you’ll wait up to 5 minutes while an associate rummages out back?” —Taylor Romero.
How stores track your shopping behavior. — Raymond R. Burke
As shoppers we’re increasingly more aware of the benefits to experience of customisation. Professor of Business Administration at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Raymond R. Burke explains why and how companies are gaining new in-store understanding that fills the blanks to deliver for customers more fluid experiences in environments with better ‘shopability’.
In discussion: New products, product packaging, pricing, promotions, displays and how these and other key point-of-purchase factors are evaluated and impacted via heat mapping, 3D imaging, facial and emotional recognition.
Missed The Future ‘Retail Reading’ List? Here’ it is again
Omnichannel: Retail (R)evolution — Kilian Wagner
In 15 minutes, Swiss startup CEO, Kilian Wagner, breaks down how ‘omni-channel retailers’ read between the lines of the post-internet e-commerce revolution to realise that the future of retail was neither solely offline nor online. Kilian explains how ‘vertical integration’ and the seamless blending of online and offline channels is helping his innovative prescription glasses startup, VIU, to build holistic customer experiences by breaking the norms of retail and steering away from the ‘online vs offline’ narrative that leaves no room for approaches that find the real potential squarely between the two.
Stat spotlight: “4 people out of 100 buy eye-ware online today. What does that tell you? That online hasn’t taken over bricks and mortar—so bricks and mortar is still relevant for 96% of customers in prescription eye-ware”
Want to add to the narrative?
As we close the door on the era of regular retail, open collaboration will become the fuelling force behind progress toward a post-turbulence retail landscape where ‘experience’ will take root as ‘the new brand’.
If these talks resonate with your thinking and you have useful industry insights that help add colour to retails collective vision of what the future can and should look like, then make yourself heard and we’ll consider publishing your thoughts.
Or simply connect just to say ‘hello’.