Retail is reborn, but the rules have changed. Let's get physical.
To say physical retail is living on borrowed time is something of an understatement. At no point in its rich and vibrant history has it been so close to being swatted aside, or perhaps more accurately annihilated, by the unstoppable march of ecommerce. We stand on the precipice of retail Armageddon. Could it possibly get any worse? Yes…simply throw a global pandemic into the mix. That’s right, the views expressed in the opening paragraph of this column are almost two years out of date.
They were the opinions of the great and the good of the retail world before any of them had even the slightest idea the executioner’s axe was falling, as the world was cast into the chilling chaos of Covid-19. According to PwC, in the UK in 2020, nearly 50 shops closed permanently every single day. But even more of a surprise was how the shocking and untimely death of physical retail, as counterintuitive as it sounds, jolted it back to life.
The saving grace was without doubt the unprecedented acceleration of change. Had it taken a few years for ‘physical’ to gently metamorphosise to ‘digital’ like we all believed it would, it is entirely possible physical retail might have silently faded away without us ever noticing. Instead, the pandemic caused it to be violently snatched away from us, but its sudden removal shocked us into realising how much we all still value it, and just how much human beings are ill-suited to living on a digital-only diet.
It turns out that the retail we can touch, feel, taste and smell is not only alive and kicking but we’ve also realised is vital to allow digital to thrive. And what better time for us to celebrate the return of physical retail than at the very same moment we celebrate the return of the ultimate travel retail physical expo, as TFWA World Exhibition returns to Cannes?
If we are honest with ourselves, however, we know that despite Cannes making its triumphant return, it will never be the same as before. Just like physical retail, the Cannes we knew and loved was yet another fatal casualty of the pandemic. When we stop for a second and realise we’ve all been looking down the wrong end of the telescope, we realise it was never about a ‘return’ but a sort of ’rebirth’; a moment of great hope and excitement, a second chance for our wonderful and resilient industry and a new era of travel retail. One with boundless possibilities.
Months of lockdowns and social distancing measures have resulted in the act of shopping becoming a desperately lonely experience. Not only are you shopping alone on your smartphone or laptop, but your only interaction with the retailer is via the soulless ecommerce platform, or, if you are lucky, an ‘AI’ chatbot which invariably doesn’t understand your needs and sends you off on an unnecessary tangent. What’s missing is the magical human component.
Shoppers visit physical locations to connect with people, to discover a sense of community and to receive a personalised retail experienced. Interacting with ‘human’ store staff is not just about seeking expert advice relating to products but about engaging in a conversation, weighing up decisions together and getting a sense that your purchase truly matters in the way a ‘click’ never can.
Physical shoppers enjoy the theatre of trying on clothes and posing in the mirrors, the sensation of the material upon their skin, how the light dances off the finish of the fabric and the creativity of combining different items together like a fashion designer. They enjoy browsing through the beautifully designed labels on each bottle, the unmistakable sound of a popping cork, the delicate aroma created by swirling the rich liquid around the inside of a glass, the warm, velvety mouthfeel and then closing their eyes to intensify the sensory experience whilst in the background an expert gently narrates the story of the product’s intriguing provenance.
Shoppers enjoy ecommerce because of the immediacy, the ease and the accessibility it provides. Images of the products you seek, rush to your hands in an instant, supported by peer reviews, price comparisons, delivery dates and all the necessary information for you to make an informed and immediate choice. Add an item to your virtual basket and alternative choices appear, you don’t have to lug them around the store with you and should you abandon your shopping mission, you know the items will remain in the basket for when you next log-in wherever in the world that may be.
Delivering success in travel retail, both now and in the future, requires us to first recognise and optimise our historic strengths. Uniquely, travel retail remains the perfect channel to introduce new brands and products, immediately bestowing on them a global credibility impossible to attain in domestic retail alone.
Pop-up stores are all the rage in domestic retail, providing limited-time experiences and exclusive products; when it’s gone, it’s gone. This is something we’ve been doing brilliantly in travel retail for years but because it takes time, effort and creativity, it is often the first thing to be cut when budgets look tight. It is vital this misconception is cast aside, and genuine exclusivity returns.
Secondly, we need to learn from the past 18 months and embrace the happy accidents which have actually worked in our favour. Social-distancing and health precautions have transformed the way shoppers navigate a retail environment, reduce the clutter from over stocked shelves, remove the unnecessary queues and promote cashless purchases. All of these have enhanced, not hindered physical retail.
Moreover, by limiting the number of shoppers who can be in store at any one time, we have inadvertently created a more intimate, and exclusive, shopping experience which has increased the desirability to enter the store.
Multi-sensory and experiential engagement is back with a bang. The excited, wide-eyed wonder of shoppers, filled with the anticipation of that ‘tingle’ which only comes from a personal physical encounter which hits every nerve and awakens the human senses, as people clamour to return to the store environment to gorge on what they have been starved of since the beginning of the pandemic.
Then there is sustainability. Think way beyond the token offerings we have all recently seen which appear to be little more than a marketing ploy to drum up more business. Think genuine, integrated sustainability, delivered throughout product sourcing, packaging, promotional materials, store display, experiential…not just for today either, but for the afterlife of the products, the materials and even the brand stories. Naturally the subject of sustainability is so significant, these comments can hardly do it justice and really it needs a column all by itself. Keep your eyes open as one is in the pipeline.
Linking the entire shopper journey through a single digital thread, has allowed shoppers to stay connected throughout the whole shopping experience and furthermore enhance the physical experience by providing additional detail which are fun, relevant, personalised and live. Through the power of digital, brands can offer customers instant brand personalisation, making each one of them feel like their very own VIP.
By taking a customer-centric approach to customer journeys and by integrating a digital platform that acts as a central data collection hub along the entire customer journey, both online and offline, the data acquired can make travel retail the perfect recruitment channel for domestic retail. As we know this continuous connection with customers is an essential tool for reinforcing strong and consistent brand narratives, which truly engenders their bond with the brand, ultimately fuelling long-term loyalty.
Apply these principles to travel retail and the second coming is going to be much more spectacular than the first.
If you’d like to speak to one of our experts to find out how your brand could benefit from finding the symbiotic equilibrium of physical and digital, and learn more about how CircleSquare are the perfect agency partner to help guide you through this complex new world, simply turn your telescope around and give us a call.
Delivering success in travel retail, both now and in the future, requires us to first recognise and optimise our historic strengths. Uniquely, travel retail remains the perfect channel to introduce new brands and products, immediately bestowing on them a global credibility impossible to attain in domestic retail alone.
Pop-up stores are all the rage in domestic retail, providing limited-time experiences and exclusive products; when it’s gone, it’s gone. This is something we’ve been doing brilliantly in travel retail for years but because it takes time, effort and creativity, it is often the first thing to be cut when budgets look tight. It is vital this misconception is cast aside, and genuine exclusivity returns.
Secondly, we need to learn from the past 18 months and embrace the happy accidents which have actually worked in our favour. Social-distancing and health precautions have transformed the way shoppers navigate a retail environment, reduce the clutter from over stocked shelves, remove the unnecessary queues and promote cashless purchases. All of these have enhanced, not hindered physical retail.
Moreover, by limiting the number of shoppers who can be in store at any one time, we have inadvertently created a more intimate, and exclusive, shopping experience which has increased the desirability to enter the store.
Multi-sensory and experiential engagement is back with a bang. The excited, wide-eyed wonder of shoppers, filled with the anticipation of that ‘tingle’ which only comes from a personal physical encounter which hits every nerve and awakens the human senses, as people clamour to return to the store environment to gorge on what they have been starved of since the beginning of the pandemic.
Then there is sustainability. Think way beyond the token offerings we have all recently seen which appear to be little more than a marketing ploy to drum up more business. Think genuine, integrated sustainability, delivered throughout product sourcing, packaging, promotional materials, store display, experiential…not just for today either, but for the afterlife of the products, the materials and even the brand stories. Naturally the subject of sustainability is so significant, these comments can hardly do it justice and really it needs a column all by itself. Keep your eyes open as one is in the pipeline.
Linking the entire shopper journey through a single digital thread, has allowed shoppers to stay connected throughout the whole shopping experience and furthermore enhance the physical experience by providing additional detail which are fun, relevant, personalised and live. Through the power of digital, brands can offer customers instant brand personalisation, making each one of them feel like their very own VIP.
By taking a customer-centric approach to customer journeys and by integrating a digital platform that acts as a central data collection hub along the entire customer journey, both online and offline, the data acquired can make travel retail the perfect recruitment channel for domestic retail. As we know this continuous connection with customers is an essential tool for reinforcing strong and consistent brand narratives, which truly engenders their bond with the brand, ultimately fuelling long-term loyalty.
Apply these principles to travel retail and the second coming is going to be much more spectacular than the first.
If you’d like to speak to one of our experts to find out how your brand could benefit from finding the symbiotic equilibrium of physical and digital, and learn more about how CircleSquare are the perfect agency partner to help guide you through this complex new world, simply turn your telescope around and give us a call.
Read the full story on The Moodie Davitt Report here.
