In the Future of Commerce series we dive into fastest-growing areas influencing what the industry will look like in the coming years.
Hear about the ongoing growth of in-store experiences featuring insights from Valtech’s Vice President of Experience Lindsey Harris, Coresight Research’s Luxury Retail Analyst Marie Driscoll, and Customer Service and Experience Expert Shep Hyken.
Download our complete report “The Future of Commerce 2025” to see the top 10 areas to watch along with latest data and insights.
TRANSCRIPT
Narrator:
The line between online and in-person shopping is blurring. Brick and mortar stores are incorporating digital components while e-commerce retailers offer in-store pickup, returns, and more. Brands are rethinking the way the physical store is experienced. We see this change through MAC concept store, where customers can try products on an augmented reality, are, mirror, and change the way their brand is experienced. With e-commerce sales increasing 39% from last year, the push for in-store retailers to innovate the customer experience is more vital than ever. In our research we found all retail executives predict in-store experiences to see growth in the coming years.
Lindsey Harris:
We see dynamic stores as this really exciting avenue to creating new brand connections. Changing that traditional narrative of just purely selling and transacting with customers to how can we create a memorable guest experience? And we have this great capability now to make the store this magical place of digital and physical inspiration together, which allows people to learn more and dig deeper and immerse more into what makes brands and products unique. And most importantly, how it’s personalized to them and how that can fold into their lives.
Lindsey Harris:
Using technology and a modular design system we have an opportunity to completely reimagine the same physical space over and over again, so that we can keep on telling these unique stories that bring people back in. And we see the dynamic store acting as a two-way conversation, so constantly getting smarter and building off of each customer touchpoint and interaction so that you can get more and more information and feedback, making it this really rich resource for customer insights to continuously be testing and learning around what’s actually resonating.
Marie Driscoll:
Why I’m excited about in-store experiences. Nearly two years of social distancing has shoppers yearning to visit their favorite retailers and brands in person, safely of course. Stores are multidimensional, multi-sensory, immersive environments where shoppers can engage with and learn about their favorite brands. Serendipity is part of the discovery process in physical stores, and shopping can be fun whether solo or with friends. Physical stores with good aesthetics, great products, and smart associates lead to superior in-store experiences, conversion, loyalty, and customer lifetime value. Go shopping, in a store.
Shep Hyken:
Hi, Shep Hyken here, Customer Service and Experience Expert. Very excited about the future of retail, especially in store. Here’s why. In the future, there will be cameras that have facial recognition software that will alert a salesperson as a customer comes in and let that salesperson know who it is, the buying purchasing patterns that they’ve a past, what they bought in the past, and that will allow that salesperson to give that customer an amazingly personalized experience. Customers love that. As a matter of fact, our current research shows that 75% of customers who have a personalized experience are more likely to come back and be loyal to that company or brand. And that’s only going to get better as we’re better able to personalize the experience. That’s the future of the in-store retail experience.
Narrator:
These highlights were just a taste of some amazing changes and innovations. Download our complete report on the future of commerce to see the top 10 areas to watch along with latest data and insights.