The shop of the future has been described to me by thousands of tweets and blog articles. Fundamentally dead in its current formula and still to be rebuilt, those who imagine it as totally innovative and speaking to Minority Report, those who instead speak of it as a point of showrooming essential for purchases in multi-channel logic.
I have been following some American blogs and consultants on the subject of Retail Experience for several years, for example Jason Goldberg VP of Razorfish or the blog Retail Customer Experience or again for the world of Fashion LuxuryDaily which together with Business of Fashion (BoF) are among the best and authoritative, and I have collected many ideas and ideas born from different experiences from all over the world. From the biggest to the least known, technology is allowing everyone to approach the theme of innovation by exploring new frontiers and experimenting with new customer relationship processes, in short, everyone is working to improve the Customer Experience (on Slideshare in 2013 I published my speech at SMAU13 on the topic with a provocative title "If you don't do Customer Experience, you don't sell"). Initially thanks to the mix of social media, smartphones and proximity technologies what I have been calling since 2006 Proximity Marketing.
What I have analyzed to date is a technological run-up. A general fear that the competitor before me introduces a new innovative device and can thus not only increase sales, but in a market like our Italian where sales move and are not created, even take away our customers. Yes, it's true! it is one of the N dynamics that we are all witnessing, but it does not apply to all sectors of commerce or in any case it is not sufficient and we should have already learned it from the well-known and loudest failures of the past (see the Digital Signage of 2006-2008 or of the bluetooth of the same period). As many people with a few more gray hairs than mine have always taught and demonstrated to me, technology is always a little or a lot ahead of consumers. And then it's not just a question of technologies and innovation, Marketing has changed or even as it provocatively suggests kevin roberts CEO of SAATCHI&SAATCHI (among other interesting statements "it is the leaders who are in crisis and not the climate") is Dead! “speed is everything today. Marketing's new job is to create movement and inspire people to participate. We have to change the language of business, the role of a leader today is to make dreams come true for customers and for their company. That is to say that we need to tell emotions, with mystery, tenderness and intimacy” and then concludes with my favorite “The strategy is dead. To win today you need an environment and a culture in which a climate of creativity reigns: IDEAS are currently the strategy!“. All this means that the shop of the future still needs emotions, a story to tell and credibility.
It's convergence. The intersection of the technological world and the physical world is the only truth that I listen to and that guides me. I'm getting to know on my way in Confcommercio the stark reality of the shop that I had forgotten over the years. My profession had anesthetized me around the Brand as the only value. Technologies had made me a slave to their cruel rapid evolution. Social media is threatening to convince me that communication is only there. And finally, the pursuit of budgets had convinced me that it was correct to favor tactics over strategy.
At the end of all this, I'm back on the ground and where strategy becomes an "idea" everything enters my playing field where my creativity travels along paths that I haven't learned yet but I let it indulge my unconscious. And here the store of the future becomes the result of many ideas that intersect and multiply the touchpoints and antennas for the transmission of the entrepreneur's, merchant's and brand's message. it is thehumanization the crossroads whoever you are. And if you haven't figured it out yet, you're off the road, the near future isn't for you. It's the emotions that really tell you about yourself and give credibility to your profession and to yourself. It is the process of evolution whether you like it or not! and the shop as a place of exchange between supply and demand must find a convergence between all the forces at play which today are rapidly moving around its status as a physical and virtual place.
This is my shop of the future whether you are a large retailer or a "small" trader. This is where the future passes. From the intersection of you, your passions, your emotions with the cruel passage of time and all that this brings with it, be they technologies, crises, transformations, globalizations, proximity, etc… Here where you will integrate your commercial strategy with Social Media, the Proximity Marketing, with your first ecommerce and you will populate your communication with amplifiers to promote yourself. But don't forget that if you don't humanize the channel, the results won't come. My advice is to tailor the channel to yourself and not the other way around, but that means experimenting and knowing.
Finally, I show you an interesting Infographic on the shop of the future to be printed the old-fashioned way and with a glass of wine in front of a fireplace, browse with a traditional pencil and on which to tick off the areas you have developed or would like to develop. Finally connect them with a big cloud and write your ideas inside. They will be your future strategy.
This post is dedicated to my lifelong colleagues and friends of Confcommercio, all those who have shared part of my story with me or are still living it all. In particular, this time I would like to thank 5 people who I have always listened to and whose words are a source of inspiration and reflection: Umberto Bossy, Francis Spigaroli, Andrey Golub, Daniele Caiaphas, Paul Ambrosetti.
I wrote this post listening to i Radiohead and often I can't help it!
