This shopping season I spent time in various insane store environments. It amazed me how some places are just piles of goods, inventory that must move. But when you think about it, these stores are the ones that can’t depend on you coming in to buythat specific Lego Star Wars set. It may not be available. And, you may get it easier and almost as fast online.Why do I need to go there? Where’s the experience I would enjoy?
What’s the reason to go to the store? Many stores or brands such as Apple have some of the highest per square foot sales in the nation. And yet they have online sales and dozens of other online merchants from Amazon to New Egg selling their gear. It’s the experience. They are specifically crafting an experience that reinforces the brand and have a sales team that does nothing but make sure this happens. You don’t get this experience of the product and brand when you buy a Samsung phone or tablet.
Similarly, when you go to Whole Foods it’s about reinforcing you are at the right place buying healthy stuff that’s good for the environment, good for the local producers and of course – good for you. It’s much harder for a Safeway to build this type of relationship. They focus on a range of customer desires, including cost, to attract their shoppers. Whole Foods wants to portray itself as “your community” market. It helps self define what you are about, your values, your reason to be seen there, just as Apple does.
Online sales, will continue to grow but when we want a reinforcing experience of who we are, defined by brand, we’re going to go the stores where our values and needs are reaffirmed. This why physical retail will never go away, why we go to specific restaurants and certain shopping districts. This all shapes our own role as “consumer”.
So next time you go shopping at a real store see if you can pick out the cues the retailer provides, and identify the mix of shoppers who have chosen to be there. This will tell you who the retailer is targeting.