The driving forces, principles and innovators in retail

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.

Retail & culture

First 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.

Store holds inventory on revolving clothes rack

Jeans, retail and innovation seems to be a pretty good combination. And this recently opened San Francisco shop is nice example to prove that again. The shop constructed from three shipping containers is now home to an even more intriguing inventory system. To maximize space, the Aether team incorporated a custom-built rotating rack that spans all three floors. Watch the short movie to see how it works.

Via Cool Hunting

Strange, interesting and all about retail trends 2

Because the first slideshow compilation I made a year ago was so highly appreciated. I decided to make a new compilation of photos that caught my eye and reflects recent tendencies in retail branding and design.

The first not-for-profit grocery store in the US

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.

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.

Via blend of life

The most interesting retail of December and January

Since December a lot of new things seem to appear that made me move again. All sorts of concepts and ideas caught my eye because they reflect the new reality. A few I already posted on this blog and I now want to share the rest of the most attention-grabbing ones with an explanation why I consider them interesting.

1.) Polaroid announces plans to launch  polaroid photobar experiential retail stores. 

We will see more old decaying brands develop a retail concept trying to become relevant again.

 

2.) Department store Selfridges introduces a ‘No Noise’ shopping experience.

In our hectic information overloaded urban society tranquillity is becoming a rarity. Retailers and brands that can offer us an escape from this fast-paced world will win.

 

3.) Farmigo is an online farmer’s market connecting organic farmers directly with communities in their direct environment.

The Internet has been collapsing supply chains and rewriting conventional business models for nearly two decades, but until now it has had limited impact on the food industry. 

 

4.) The  Billionaire Shop is an online store for the super rich created by gambling company Multilotto.com.

The world is getting polarized and that counts for (on-line) retail too.

 

5.) The Tommy Bahama flagship store on NYC’s  5th Ave. generates two and a half times the sales per square foot than a regular store because of in-store restaurant and bar.

Big cities become leisure paradises and people like to spend their leisure time shopping. But shopping doesn’t necessarily mean immediate buying. Therefore physical stores have to find new business models that cash in on the leisure ‘shopper’. A successful model is an in-store restaurant or bar to lure people and compensate the loss.”

 6.) Takeo Kikuchi’s flagship store in Tokyo  has no one-way shopping circulation and is a place to feel at ease.

Online shopping changed the rules for offline retail. Not only became stores showrooms or places to relax, the way we enter the shop, how we browse and the moment we pay has all changed. Stores with a one-way shopping circulation will become a thing of the past

What were the 10 retail trends of 2012

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.

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

The 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