I’ve been very occupied with my work and therefor forgot to blog. Beside that I started my Flipboard where I post interesting, relevant news about retail. Since I discover that there are still a lot of viewers left I will try to rehabilitate my blog by starting to post an updated personal presentation about retail. Inhere I explain the driving forces, principals of retail and the movers and shakers in the field of retail. Hope you enjoy it.
Archive for the ‘business’ Category
Retail & culture
7 June 2013First of all, my apologies to the regular reader for being off line for such a long time. I was extremely busy with off course retail and in the meantime switched jobs. Since a month I am working for the renowned retail (design) office Jos the Vries, where I have the privilege to work on some jobs in Russia and spread some retail knowledge.
How refreshing it is to dip yourself in a totally different shopping culture. You know there are cultural differences; I experience them as a foreign consumer quite often. But when you design shops for these other cultures you really get confronted with the differences. To design shops for these other cultures can therefore be a real ‘challenge’.
The catch is in the question of the client: ”Make for us just as good store like you have in the West. “ While your knowledge extensive and most of the time exceed that of these foreign retailers, the biggest danger is to forget respecting the local culture. Things are often like that for a reason, wether it is culture, the law or the system. Don’t forget that retail mirrors the society it serves.
For now I will bring a lot of ‘Western’ knowledge but I hope to see some interesting things that spark some reverse retail innovation here in the West.
And because I mostly bring news or interesting stuff from the West I will now share a slideshow with some ‘inspiring’ foreign (depends on where you live) retail ideas.
Strange, interesting and all about retail trends 2
13 February 2013The first not-for-profit grocery store in the US
31 January 2013
photo: Fare & Square
Convenient access to nutritious food is a growing and complex problem in the US. There are vast areas called food desserts where the offering of fresh food is scarce but fast-food restaurants and convenience stores selling prepared foods thrive. The City of Chester lays in one of these food desserts and has been without a decent grocery store for 11 years.
The largest hunger relief organization of the region that helps the poor and hungry realized that they had to come up with a more radical solution to tackle the problem. And last year they announced that they would open the first nonprofit grocery store in the country. The nonprofit grocery store will go by the name Fare & Square and will provide greater food access to the residents of Chester. At the same time the organization hopes to enhance the interaction in the community by partnering with local organizations and businesses.
Retail design consultancy and brand agency CBX has been retained to design a prototype for Fare & Square that will open its doors this summer. Build in the old supermarket to save cost, the goal is to design a neighborhood store that will have the look and feel of a traditional supermarket and can be replicate in other communities in the Delaware Valley.”
An interesting and sympathetic retail initiative that I hope will succeed, not in the last place to show that the mechanisms of retail not only are harmful but can also be helpful.
You can now lease your jeans at Dutch fashion label Mud Jeans.
18 January 2013
Sustainable Jeans brand Mud Jeans has introduced “Lease a Jeans”. A rent a service they think make their already sustainable produced jeans affordable and even more sustainable.
When you pay your purchase you do not receive your receipt but a contract. Only ones you pay € 20,- for your jeans and after that for a year € 5,- per month. After a year you have paid eighty euros. What comes next is that you have three choices: you send the Mud jeans back, you choose a new one for € 7,50 or you pay for yet another four months € 5,- a month to wear your jeans.
When you want to return your Mud jeans after a view years, you get your warranty of € 20,- back for your next choice. The jeans will remain property by Mud Jeans because you are renting it.
An exciting initiative which stretches the boundaries of the temporary ownership economy.
What were the 10 retail trends of 2012
1 January 2013
On the blog of Gensler architects Barry Bourbon always gives us, at the end of the year, a retrospective of what trends appeared the past year. This month he again pointed out 10 trends that got shape this year and will influence next year. I think with all points he hit the nail on it’s head but there are 3 that caught my attention because they aren’t talked about that much but seems to be just as significant.
Turning the pop-up into experience design: For years, pop-up shops have signaled fun if not fleeting introductions to new brands and new products, but my number one observation from 2012 is that pop-ups are here to stay. I don’t mean that we’ll see even more of the here-today-gone-tomorrow temporary shops (though I don’t think that trend is over), but rather I believe the experience that pop-up shops have provided is a major impetus for traditional retailers’ push to reengage their own customers. It’s about finding unexpected elements within retail – a health care advisor inside a grocery store or a tea shop inside a furniture store – that create value, convenience and unique experiences. Shoppers want to be wowed, and that’s a trend that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Elevated brand image overseas: As Western brands increasingly migrate to new international markets, it’s exciting to see prototypes adapt to global consumers’ tastes for innovative, boundary-pushing design. If it weren’t for the logo, would you have guessed that this is a Starbucks? I think this is another trend that has a long future; in fact, I think retailers’ willingness to test new ideas in new markets will raise the bar for design and branding back at home in the U.S., too. One to watch.
Department store reinvention: With credit to my colleague Kathleen Jordan for her keen eye on this trend, I’m especially excited about what department stores are doing to make themselves relevant again – improving customer experience, integrating technology, offering exclusive brands, and de-cluttering their store designs.
The seven other trends are
– Personalized coupons
– Digital transactions simplified
– Local made products
– Showrooming
– Big data
– Brazil in the spotlight
– Design collaborations
via Gensleron
Girls only telecom store.
21 December 2012
In an extremely mature retail environment like Japan, retail is less generic and often very niche, specialized or single subject focused. An example of this single subject focused retail is lifestyle or gender orientated stores. One of the most recent cases is from Japanese mobile carrier DoCoMo who has just opened a new communications concept called The Shelf. It is a relaxing environment for young women where technology is being presented as part of people’s everyday lives rather than a (beautiful designed) technology orientated phone store.
Located in the backstreets of Omotesando (Tokyo, Japan) The Shelf has two floors to explore and test the communication technology, books, magazines and make-up. The first floor features four areas surrounding the themes of Travel, Work, Beauty, and Fashion. All the different services and products are curetted by a popular role model who represents one of the themes. They have collaborated in creating a space that shows how the smart phone integrates into everyday’s life for young women. The second floor is the café and lounge to sit down, enjoy tea, read a magazine and check out some make up.
The Shelf is a fascinating idea That is based around understanding lifestyle and need instead of features and models.
via Shift East
Rethinking Retail by Dana Cho and Beau Trincia, Ideo
18 December 2012The opportunity, as Dana Cho and Beau Trincia from IDEO shared in their presentation, is for brands to make it possible to connect individuals. Wether it is with people who like the same product, the maker or just friends.
Read also their paper the future of retail
5 Trends That Will Shape Digital Services In 2013 (and therefore retail)
16 December 2012
Now we entered the omni channel world in retail it is impossible to ignore the digital trends. Olof Schybergson of the design firm Fjord named 5 key trends that have to be watched in 2013 and what to do. The last one is even solitarily dedicated to retail.
1. DAWN OF THE “PERSONAL ECOSYSTEM”
Connected objects start to take their place–right by your side.
2. K.I.S.S. (KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID)
Simplicity has a long track record of success and disruption. How good old-fashioned K.I.S.S. principles are making a comeback.
3. ACCESS WILL SUPPLANT OWNERSHIP
What does it mean to own something in the digital age? As the focus shifts from ownership to access.
4. I BELONG TO ME
How to survive if you find yourself on the personal data battlefield.
5. A PERSONAL SHOPPER FOR EVERYBODY
The coming revolution in retail
Personalization is nothing new in the digital world, but in the world of retail, users often find that comparatively few services actually meet their needs. This is likely to change in 2013, as the online and offline retail environments merge, creating a more holistic and immersive customer experience.
A statistic to strike fear into the heart of any retailer: Almost half of U.S. smartphone users have used their devices in-store, and more than half of those have gone on to abandon their in-store purchase. For smartphone users, the distinction between online and in-store shopping has all but disappeared.
The key to retail success lies in creating experiences that make customers feel better. A shopping experience that feels smarter or easier can be more valuable for many customers than simply getting the best deal. Key factors that ensure success are increasingly going to be based on recognition, recommendation, follow-through, and support. Services like Intuit GoPayment and PayPal Here (both of which Fjord helped to design) are already revolutionizing commerce for small retailers by simplifying payment, and the next natural step is to offer digital customer relationship management for these small merchants.
Shop staff will increasingly be equipped with tablets or smartphones to deliver improved individual service, and opt-in location-based services will help customers find precisely what they’re looking for, when they’re looking to buy, and will enable them to pay on the spot without queuing. Virtual shops, in other words, will also take hold in the physical world.
Suggestions for the shopping services of 2013:
• Design commerce services that make use of smartphone sensors and contextual data–camera, gyroscope, time of day, and location.
• Design innovative and simple solutions for small merchants. This is a big group of merchants, yet they are not digitally savvy at all. Inventory management, customer relationships, loyalty solutions, digital storefronts–these can be life-changing services for small retailers.
• Re-imagine the boring things and make them engaging. As PayPal and Square have shown, even something as painful as paying can be pretty cool.
read the rest here
No sales person jeans store
1 December 2012There is a new shopping experience that’s powered by robots and your smartphone. Founded by a former Amazon exec this shop has the potential to revolutionize the way we buy clothes! In the store customers can scan QR codes on jeans they like and robots will send their specific size to a designated dressing room.
The store carrying the name Hointer, located in the University District of Seattle, is still in beta mode and focuses on high-end jeans for male for now. But the company plans on selling all men’s apparel with various price ranges and eventually expands into the women and teen clothing worlds as well.
Main reason the focus is still men based is the simple fact that shopping is an arduous chore for most guys. They’d rather be efficient with their shopping, and Hointer gives them that with a tech twist. These shoppers are like hunters — that’s where the name “Hointer” comes from.
Why this concept is a glimps in the future? The design of the store requires less floorspace and fewer salespeople, which in turn allows Hointer to offer low prices and carry more stock. And the app allows Hointer to track everything in the store in real-time and lets customers rate clothing. Brands can then access that data via Hointer’s portal to see which apparel people tend to try on and not.
Now it is already so successful Hointer plans to open more stores in Bellevue, San Francisco and possibly abroad in Tokyo and Shanghai.
Brand Retail and Design 