Experiential Retail: Adding Aesthetic to Your Business
Aileen Padua
With strikingly colorful products from Gucci to classically timeless jewelry showcased at Tiffany & Co., window displays never cease to amaze us with their festive and ornate mannequins and decor, especially with the holiday season just around the corner. Experiential retail does the same exact thing, except that it gives you an experience that you will never forget. Here is our breakdown on how experiential retail takes visual merchandising to the next level.
Courtesy of: http://www.truestaging.co.uk
Into the Future
Studies have shown that 52% of Millenials prefer to go on “experience-related” purchases compared to 32% of older customers when making holiday purchases. So, what does this mean for retail shoppers? Well, it’s not only telling you to up your shopping game, but that experiential retail is the future and will save you from the decline in physical retail.
Let’s take the e-commerce portal FarFetch for instance. Founded in 2008 by José Neves, FarFetch sparks lasting connections with its customers through its connected clothing racks and touch-screen-enhanced mirrors with sign in kiosks. The connected clothing rack has its own app where it records items that customers pick-up from the rack, and can later view from the app by swiping left or right to edit selected products. Each enhanced smart mirror includes sizing requests and self-checkout, all without leaving your dressing room! Because of its innovation, FarFetch is labeled as “The Retail of the Future”.
Despite all the fancy high-tech that FarFetch brings into experiential retail, you can pull off an immersive shopping experience for customers with these simple ideas that can bring your store to life:
- Do it for the ‘Gram: Think of The Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco and New York. Everyone wants to dive into a pool of sprinkles and take a picture of it to post on Instagram. When applying experiential retail to your business, go bold with your ideas when it comes to the theme of your brand.
- Localize Your Brand: Bring the sense of your community into your store. Make it one of the reasons why everyone wants to come into your store. Say your store location is in the heart of a major city. Connect your business with what that city is notoriously known for whilst promoting your brand. This will allow you to get in touch with customers, and make your store more welcoming with the essence of relatability.
- Get Tech Savvy: I’m talking about going beyond promoting your products on social media. Try collaborating with companies that offer virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI). It’s been proven that virtual simulations and experiences will reshape retail and will continue to do so by 2025. Trust us, it’s the next big thing, and going to be innovative.
What’s Next?
Since it’s the holiday season, now is the time for businesses to decorate their stores beyond a window display. Neves says that 93% of sales today is physical retail, which means that the enhancement of experiential retail is guaranteed to increase consumer ratings by 2025. This can be a good way to help guide customers with their path to discovering something new, especially in your store.
What aesthetic ideas are you thinking about that will bring your store to life this holiday season? Comment down below.
Read more blogs from MakersValley here.
Aileen studies at California State University with a major in Advertising and a minor in Fashion Merchandising. She is a marketing intern for MakersValley.
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