With eCommerce usually proving probably the most handy possibility for the sensible components of procuring, shoppers are demanding brick-and-mortar retailers present them with an expertise they can not get on-line.
Foot Locker on Wednesday (April 24) introduced its new “retailer of the longer term” in Wayne, New Jersey, a retail format that can present learnings to be included into new shops as a part of the footwear and attire retailer’s world refresh.
The shop’s structure that’s meant to drive discovery and to permit for simpler navigation, with new releases and trending merchandise highlighted in designated sections close to the doorway. It goals to offer higher model storytelling. On the again finish, the corporate goals to combine the shop with new digital capabilities that allow staff to work extra effectively.
“Our new retailer idea cements Foot Locker’s place because the chief in sneaker tradition by providing an interesting, cutting-edge procuring expertise for the sneaker passionate,” Mary Dillon, the retailer’s president and CEO, stated in a press release.
Bodily shops are now not standalone entities however integral elements of a bigger omnichannel retail technique. They function touchpoints the place clients can expertise merchandise firsthand, make purchases, or interact with the model bodily. As eCommerce grows, bodily shops are adapting their layouts and designs to accommodate altering shopper behaviors. Some retailers are decreasing retailer sizes or redesigning areas to focus extra on experiential components relatively than product show.
As an illustration, on Greatest Purchase’s final earnings name, CEO Corie Barry defined that with shoppers now not solely depending on shops to turn into acquainted with a given location’s stock, the corporate can supply a extra streamlined in-person expertise.
“We plan to the touch each single retailer within the chain in some style, bettering each our merchandising and ease of buying clients,” Barry stated. “This contains bettering and livening the merchandising presentation, given the shift to digital procuring and corresponding decrease want to carry as a lot stock on the gross sales flooring.”
Plus, Walmart has its Retailer of the Future idea, which contains interactive expertise that blends on-line and in-person procuring.
At their finest, bodily shops can function neighborhood hubs the place clients can interact with the model on an area degree, with retailers internet hosting occasions, workshops, or demonstrations to foster a way of neighborhood and encourage repeat visits.
“We’re … leaning in fairly closely with retailer occasions,” Raina Khumush, director of promoting and digital at Buybuy Child, instructed PYMNTS in an interview final month. “So, we try to create a cadence of very common retailer occasions, in order that our clients that do occur to reside inside driving distance of a retailer can are available regularly and work together with us and our distributors and have some actually attention-grabbing and funky in-person experiences with us.”
Khumush added that these experiences have included retailer openings and registry-building occasions and that every one have included a giveaway part.
Foot Locker’s new retailer, for its half, features a communal try-on spot for buyers to “join and expertise the inclusivity of sneaker tradition.”
These updates come because the rise of digital transforms shoppers’ expectations, with many patrons now interacting with retailers each by way of on-line and bodily channels, in accordance with the PYMNTS Intelligence examine “2024 World Digital Procuring Index: U.S. Version,” created in collaboration with Visa Acceptance Options. The report, which attracts from a survey of greater than 2,400 U.S. shoppers, discovered that near 1 in 3 are Click on-and-Mortar™ buyers, choosing a buying journey that entails each digital instruments and bodily places.
Particularly, the examine famous, 1 in 5 shoppers are digitally assisted in-store buyers, preferring to make use of digital instruments to enhance their brick-and-mortar journey, and 11% are pickup buyers, preferring to position orders on-line to gather on the retailer. Nonetheless, a major share of shoppers proceed to buy the old school manner, with 44% preferring to easily make purchases in shops with out digital help.