The future of Retailing: Roll out the Red Carpet

There is lots of fuss around the future of retailing given disruptions from online businesses like Amazon.com, eBay and Alibaba. 

Let’s think a bit about retailing and why do we enjoy shopping. One very obvious reasons to shop is to satisfy our needs. But what about our wants, more often we shop to satisfy wants instead of needs. In many cases, we really shop to satisfy our wants. In-store retailing is being challenged because it is easier to shop with the click of a button. After all, who wants to go out to buy bulking items when we can have them delivered to us with online shopping? 

Let us connect — customers quite often buy unnecessary items or satisfy their wants to release stress or to have a wonderful experience using the product or service. Here, is where a new retailing concept can emerge to capture customers who are seeking a wonderful retail shopping experience. Instead of just going out to buy products and services which we need or want, how about going out to buy them in a store where we know its an opportunity for a relaxing wonderful experience — like going to the spa. 

Just how can this happen in retailing? There is an opportunity to rebrand in-store retailing as a fun experience the customers can pursue alone or with friends or family. 

When the urge to shop to release stress hits, customers will likely take it if stores treat their shopping as a need for pampering — not just the need for the product or service they will be buying. According to Macy’s CEO, “We’re not in the commodity business; we’re in the experiences business.” Clearly, some retail businesses are recognizing that they need to focus more on their service as its largely a reason for in-store shopping. 

Here, is where a red carpet retail experience can develop into great customer relations. The stores will only need to train their staff to connect better with customers and avoid ignoring them. The experience should start with asking the customers about their day and the items which the will like to purchase. The sales associated should then actively try to help the customers find the products they envision.

Equipping the sales representatives with Ipads will certainly help to identify what the customers are looking for without having to gather a lot of physical items. This experience will build closeness when the customers realize that shopping for specific items no longer has to be daunting and time-consuming.

With the disruption in retailing due to e-commerce comes other opportunities such as the use of augmented reality. It could allow virtual sales associates to host customers throughout their shopping.