Looking at Retailing in the Year 2012
In the next two years, shoppers will become even more oriented toward their homes, relying on technology, computers and smart phones to interact with the outside world.
Think 3-D television sets that give viewers a real-life experience. Imagine mobile-phone apps that let shoppers mix and match outfits from a brand’s latest collection. Consider streaming video that allows viewers real-time glimpses of runway shows and then offers them the chance to order the latest fashion lineup before they hit the stores.
“We are seeing the home being a safe environment to explore the world,” said Sally Lohan, head of West Coast content for British trend predictor WGSN. “A lot of this technology exists. The next step is to apply it intelligently into our lives.”
Lohan was speaking at an Aug. 24 seminar at the California Market Center in Los Angeles about consumer and retail trends for 2012.
Two years from now, she said, retailers will have to be even more imaginative in enticing consumers out of their homes and into stores now that online shopping is becoming more popular. “The post-recessionary retail world doesn’t have to be a one-way street,” she said. “Shoppers need personal interaction and crave an all-around sensory experience. Retailers need to harness the online and the offline.”
Retailers need to give shoppers a fully rounded, sensory experience. They should keep in mind that shoppers want an emotional connection—to interact with retailers and understand the back story.
For example, at Lululemon Athletica’s yoga-inspired apparel store in Vancouver, Canada, a designer with a production team works in a shop-floor atelier and interacts with customers. “Shoppers can talk to the designer and even suggest ideas [for product],” Lohan said. “It is a very clever way of getting customers involved in your brand.”
Consumers want to be part of the elite professional world and part of the retail world. “It is all about transparency. It is all about showing everything about you,” Lohan said, noting that at a recent Dolce & Gabbana runway show, a video in the background displayed the inner workings of the design workshop.
Consumers also are looking for shopping experiences to take them outside their world and enhance their lives. Recently, Levi Strauss & Co. went beyond the traditional retail formula and opened up a large exhibition space filled with artistic photographs in the front of its London store. Some may question the logic of losing merchandising space to an art exhibit. But others think it is wise. “We know that consumers are looking for more than just products and for brands to take risks,” Lohan explained. “This will get consumers’ interest.”Going digital
The digital age is just taking off, but, already, merchandising pioneers are taking full advantage of it. The British retail chain Topshop has been putting its window displays on its website, which allows consumers to connect digitally and purchase items seen in the window. It’s like walking down a major shopping street from your home or office.
Burberry has a section on its website called “Art of the Trench” that lets people upload photos of them or friends wearing Burberry trench coats. There is room for comments under each photo. “The results for the first eight weeks were 330,000 visitors in 191 countries,” Lohan said. “Press coverage reached 6.8 million people and resulted in an 85 percent increase in trench coat sales.”
Gap Inc. opened pop-up stores to get the word out about its new Gap 1969 denim collection and presented an online video by Patrick Robinson, executive vice president of design.
Don’t forget online “hauling videos” by consumers that allow them to share their apparel purchases with friends who make comments about the fashion selections.
And the digital world means faster fashion. Burberry recently had a runway show and, through its website, offered some of the items to consumers who ordered within 10 days of the catwalk presentation. Online orders were sent to shoppers three months before they made it to the stores. Old-fashioned retailing
Not to be left out of the retail mix is something that has been around forever: good, old-fashioned customer service.
Massimo Duti, the retailer owned by the Inditex Group in Spain, has several folding stations on its floors. Staff can be seen and approached by shoppers with questions about where to find merchandise or how to wear it.
Hong Kong–based retailer Lane Crawford has noticed that since the recession, consumers have less time for shopping. So the high-end department store is focusing on lifestyle displays with edited merchandise for quicker purchases. “It’s not all about technology,” Lohan said. “Service should be at the top of the list.”—Deborah Belgum
