The battle for retail: experience will win the day

“Stores are the new black, in the world of e-commerce”. Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business

Industry headlines mostly focus on the upcoming ‘retail apocalypse’ with all shopping moving online. Our obsession with novelty can sometime blind us to what really matters, and it might be time to come back to what retail is really about: a great experience where everyone enjoys spending money. Ironically Apple, arguably the world’s most famous and successful tech brand, showed us the way 13 years ago when they opened their first Apple store. Since then, Apple has delivered a masterclass on delivering the perfect brand experience via their stores, at scale. 

A recent report by the Australia Retail Association, confirms that bricks-and-mortar is far from dead. This report has identified that today, online shopping represents 8% of total traditional retail sales, with over 90% of sales made in store. Far from predicting a dire future, the report predicts that in 2040 over 70% of purchases are still likely to be made in store. Retail is far from dying a slow death. But according to Mirvac retail Australian brands need to offer physical experiences that are drawcards for foot traffic if they want to keep flourishing and stay competitive.

Australian retailers need to up their game

As a nation we tend to travel a lot. Because of this, the Australian retail scene is often defined by overseas global hubs. And by comparison, Sydney and Melbourne compare poorly against the likes of NYC, Paris, and London. But I’d argue that the myriad of excuses and rationales that are being put forward, do not stand up against the elephant in the room: many Australian retailers fails to deliver a great experience.

So here are three ways to build a great retail experience.

1. For a great retail experience: start with your brand idea

At the center of a great experience should be your big brand idea. A brand is everything a company does and says. It’s how a company looks and feels. It’s everything a company promises to their customers. And it’s all brought to life by how you experience it. A brand idea should be big enough so that e-commerce, technology, the store experience, design, advertising and employee culture are all unified under one roof. For customers it means being immersed in one powerful story, directed by your brand. Regardless of how, or by which channel they access your brand, they will experience your brand.

The Australian brand Mecca is doing a fantastic job at using their retail experience to build an amazing brand from the ground up. And recently they launched Australia’s biggest brand experience with Meccaland a fantastic way to deliver their brand story and invite customers for true brand immersion.

2. Get creative: embrace your inner-disco

“Everyone wants to be on stage, all nightclubs are theatres” Scott Bromley interior designer/creator  Studio 54

As we keep talking about solutions that involve “omnichannel, CX, BX, UX” and other acronyms, maybe a simpler way would be to apply a nightclub mindset to retail.

Using Scott Bromley’s analogy, I think retail might be the new nightclub. There is so much we can learn from club culture. At their best nightclubs are integrated spaces that seamlessly and creatively blend so many disciplines together; a production that combines sound, lightning, media, art, music, loyalty programs (VIP spaces) and of course, a stage for all to perform. Retail needs to be regarded as an elaborate stage, a fantasy environment if you like, where each and every one of us can freely play up our own identities.

But where’s the fanfare and inspiration in Australia? Before people even buy anything these days, they look to Pinterest, Instagram and weekly rags to see how celebrities’ style (or how their stylists’ style) everything from shoes to sunglasses. Seeing racks of faceless, colorless grubby mannequins missing arms in store isn’t exactly inspiring. Retail experiences should provide options, inspiration, fun and joy.

3. Use ‘good old common sense’

These are glaringly obvious, and yet they continue to be the basis of everyone’s gripes around experience.

Customers are still not the focal point. When I first started my working life with a major European supermarket chain, everyone’s day started at 5am. It meant that cleaning, re-stocking, setting up new promotional material and prepping check-out counters (and replacing receipt rolls!) were all done and ready to face customers by 9am. As a result, the staff had only one job left to do when the doors flung open – focus on the customer. Sounds silly, but next time you’re out shopping have a look and see how many employees are doing ‘prep’ work during opening hours and ignoring customers.

Invite me in, and make it easy. Easy navigation is one of the cardinal rules of retail, things like placing Click & Collect on level 5 (for real) or having to jump over a wall of promotions as you enter the store, just makes thing unnecessarily hard. And having a burly security guard glaring at me as I walk in, doesn’t make me feel as special as I should.

Finally, when times are tough don’t ignore the power of building a great retail experience

We know big retailers have been struggling recently. Weakening property values, stagnant wages growth, poor consumer confidence, ‘new’ competition (Amazon), and a changing retail calendar (Black Friday, Cyber Monday) have been identified as the main perpetrators, and for most the answer has been to focus on sales and discounting. This ignores that price is only one part of the value equation, and that most people, regardless if you are on a budget or not (as proven by Mecca) are after great retail experiences. We can’t prioritise one over the other anymore, value brands still need to deliver on experience.

It might be time for all of us to go clubbing again.