It's the 21st century. Technology is all around us. But we still interact with products on display units the same. exact. way!
You walk up to a clothing rack and see a pair of pants (or slacks) that catch your eye. Too bad there are three other people browsing the rack and standing right in front of your pants! As a respectful and calm person, you patiently wait for them to find their desired apparel and walk away. But after three minutes they are still there. Or maybe after three minutes they moved on and you are already trying the pants on in the fitting room. Either way, why do you have to wait?
The last post was about reinventing the way consumers make purchases and turning brick and mortar's into theater's that serve as the embodiment of the brand to drive revenue across all channels. This post is the next step, and is about how the store can become a theater.
You walk up to a clothing rack and see a pair of pants (or slacks) that catch your eye. Too bad there are three other people browsing the rack and standing right in front of your pants! As a respectful and calm person, you patiently wait for them to find their desired apparel and walk away. But after three minutes they are still there. Or maybe after three minutes they moved on and you are already trying the pants on in the fitting room. Either way, why do you have to wait?
The last post was about reinventing the way consumers make purchases and turning brick and mortar's into theater's that serve as the embodiment of the brand to drive revenue across all channels. This post is the next step, and is about how the store can become a theater.
I'll preface this by saying this concept is relatively new, so I'm still brainstorming what the best possible solution is. Maybe you can leave comments with your own solution ideas. No idea is too crazy or too simple. Remember, if people don't think it's crazy then you're not being entrepreneurial enough.
Thinking back on all of my shopping experiences, the thing that dissuades me most is the thought of fighting through other people who are looking for the similar products that I am. Go to the shoe section of Macy's on a busy day and... well... have some happy thoughts stored up to get you through the wait. Go to any MAC store in NYC on the weekend and... well... it doesn't matter if the lipstick / eyeshadow tester units are doubled up in the front and in the back, you will have to wait for your turn to play with the products. Not to mention, go to Sephora and you will realize those gondolas (that's what Sephora calls all its large merchandising units that are placed on the floor and hold different brand's products) do not exactly make for easy browsing when more than three people are trying to look at products from the same brand.
So this got me thinking, why must we go to a particular place in the store to try different products? Why must products be separated throughout the store? Yes, that is how it has always been done, but that does not mean it's the best way for it to be done now.
If you think about it, there are more popular and less popular places in the store. So several things can happen: (1) When most shoppers flock to one area of the store, the profitability of the other spaces goes down, which brings down the overall average sales per square foot of the store. (2) Certain areas will become so populated (or the whole store will be populated) that people will decide to come back later or shop online instead of wait (it's like the long Shake Shack line in Madison Square Park. How many sales are they losing because people don't feel like waiting on that long line?) (3) Worst case scenario is that people will anticipate the mass of people to be expected in the store, which means that they will not even come in, which means they will not even be exposed to seeing other products that may catch their eye as an impulse purchase.
In all three scenarios (though I'm sure you can thing of many more), the profitability and sales capacity of the store was diminished and in some cases, even helped nudge people towards purchasing online. That would be great if the purpose of the store was to drive sales across all channels (which it will in the future), but right now it doesn't. So how do we change that?
Idea: Allow customers to experience any product, anywhere in the store, using a mix of digital technology and conveyor belts.
Idea: Allow customers to experience any product, anywhere in the store, by utilizing the "restaurant" concept in retail stores.
Thinking back on all of my shopping experiences, the thing that dissuades me most is the thought of fighting through other people who are looking for the similar products that I am. Go to the shoe section of Macy's on a busy day and... well... have some happy thoughts stored up to get you through the wait. Go to any MAC store in NYC on the weekend and... well... it doesn't matter if the lipstick / eyeshadow tester units are doubled up in the front and in the back, you will have to wait for your turn to play with the products. Not to mention, go to Sephora and you will realize those gondolas (that's what Sephora calls all its large merchandising units that are placed on the floor and hold different brand's products) do not exactly make for easy browsing when more than three people are trying to look at products from the same brand.
So this got me thinking, why must we go to a particular place in the store to try different products? Why must products be separated throughout the store? Yes, that is how it has always been done, but that does not mean it's the best way for it to be done now.
If you think about it, there are more popular and less popular places in the store. So several things can happen: (1) When most shoppers flock to one area of the store, the profitability of the other spaces goes down, which brings down the overall average sales per square foot of the store. (2) Certain areas will become so populated (or the whole store will be populated) that people will decide to come back later or shop online instead of wait (it's like the long Shake Shack line in Madison Square Park. How many sales are they losing because people don't feel like waiting on that long line?) (3) Worst case scenario is that people will anticipate the mass of people to be expected in the store, which means that they will not even come in, which means they will not even be exposed to seeing other products that may catch their eye as an impulse purchase.
In all three scenarios (though I'm sure you can thing of many more), the profitability and sales capacity of the store was diminished and in some cases, even helped nudge people towards purchasing online. That would be great if the purpose of the store was to drive sales across all channels (which it will in the future), but right now it doesn't. So how do we change that?
Idea: Allow customers to experience any product, anywhere in the store, using a mix of digital technology and conveyor belts.
- Think of those sushi places that have a conveyor belt which carries sushi on a plate and when you see one you like passing your table, you pick it off the conveyor belt.
- My thought for stores is a little different (I'll present the overall concept, not the logistics for now, as that can make this post quite extensive). You go up to an iPad on the wall, search through the inventory of tester products, select one or a few that you would like to see and then the conveyor belt (either exposed on the outside of the wall or inside the wall) delivers it to your location. Clean. Sanitized if necessary. Ready to be tried... and bought (in store, but delivered to your home that is.)
Idea: Allow customers to experience any product, anywhere in the store, by utilizing the "restaurant" concept in retail stores.
- Have you ever been to Hill Country Barbeque? This spot has an amazing business model. Gone are the waiters as the bottlenecks to service timing; gone is the need to train waiters to take and manage orders. Expenses are reallocated and the experience is enhanced (so long as you are not looking for fine dining.) Waiters bring you drinks and utensils, but the food you order for yourself.
- How do we translate this to retail? What if there were sit down tables throughout a store and there was an area where you went to order the things you wanted to try on / test out? Yes, I do understand there are many limitations to this, like restricted capacity, bottlenecks, tester inventory management, etc. But it's just an idea that is worth throwing out there, and maybe it can combine with another idea to eliminate the limitations!