In the year ahead, retailers will be going to greater lengths to encourage consumers to see shopping as an inspiring way to pass the time, rather than just a transactional experience, according to trends analyst, The Innovation Group.
The Future 100 report on retail trends for 2019 from The Innovation Group discusses ‘Shoptainment’s latest wave.’ It cites activities at American department store chain and housewares stockist Neiman Marcus over the past year. The retailer has surprised its existing customers and attracted new ones with events that have included body piercers, graffiti artists, acupuncturists, and ‘personalisation experts.’
The trend is not confined to in-store retailing. The Future 100 report highlights NTWRK’s reinvention of the QVC concept for generations Y and Z by creating online shows about its exclusive product launches. The report also cites UK online retailer Missguided’s partnership with the hit reality TV progamme Love Island to ‘shop the look’ of the show via a Love Island app.
“Retailers are clear that today’s consumers need to be inspired to part with their cash. But they’re no longer relying on traditional editorial channels to dream up a story around their products,” says Lucie Greene, director of JWT Innovation. “Instead, in the latest evolution of retailers creating content, they’re orchestrating spectacles—both in terms of video content online and in real life—to entertain and fuel consumers’ desire to make that purchase.”
Closer to home, designer Tom Dixon says he has focused on a “different model” for his new retail venture at Coal Drop Yard, Kings Cross. Talking at a recent press event for Ambiente (where the Tom Dixon brand will exhibit in the tableware halls), Tom said his new London venue combines “shop, entertainment and food.” His lifestyle shop – stocking his tea and coffee sets – is set in the ground floor arches of a Victorian industrial building. Shoppers can see designers and artisans at work in an open plan workshop. The neighbouring building includes a restaurant, where diners can buy the tableware.
Recent examples of sensational in-store activities include a Guinness World Record breaking baking session held in Lakeland’s flagship Windermere branch. Raising funds for the Royal British Legion last month, the Lakeland team baked cupcakes from 11am on a Friday to 5pm on the following Saturday, while the shop remained open.
Top: Visitors to the Tom Dixon shop at London’s Kings Cross can see manufacturing in action, as part of the designer’s “different approach” to retail.
