E-retailing 2.0

On October 13, Sephora officially opened a future concept store, its third globally and second in China, in Wuhan’s Chu He Han Street (楚河汉街), China’s longest commercial pedestrian street. 

The 700-square-meter boutique offers a fully digitized and AI-based experience, similar to the company’s Store of the Future in Shanghai. The retail space includes seven digital touchpoints that provide services such as big data-powered skin analysis, an AI-generated product recommendation system, product labels equipped with RFID, and mobile POS.

Speaking at a media event held to publicize the launch, Sephora Greater China General Manager Chen Bing said that the company had accelerated its store expansion plan this year. Sephora operated over 330 stores as of September, with an additional 15 new stores expected to open in the fourth quarter of this year.

Sephora Store of the Future has set up seven digital touchpoints, such as big data-powered skin analysis, an AI-generated product recommendation system, product labels equipped with RFID, and mobile POS.

Interactive shopping is making waves across the Chinaverse once again. On September 14, Alibaba Group revealed that its marketing technology platform Alimama has plans to launch an immersive meta space called "Metaverse" for this year’s Double 11 festival. Within the digital establishment, consumers will be able to browse virtual shops and engage in exclusive entertainment experiences. As of now, the project is said to have resonated with a number of brands across the country, whose names are yet to be disclosed, suggesting many are gearing up to show their cooperation and involvement with the campaign.

Being successful in today’s retail industry, which is so often weighed down with baggage and years of conventional methods of operation, is all about thinking radically.
It is no secret that the retail industry is incredibly competitive.

This is in no small part due to the outsize influence of Amazon. The company is larger than the next seven largest retailers combined, according to Robin Report. Additionally, the arrival of mobile technology and ecommerce has made retailers’ jobs even harder. As Amazon continually dominates the overall retail world, retailers need to radically rethink the ways in which they engage with customers. Everything from redesigning in-store experiences to more deeply integrating online and offline shopping are all core tenets of the new radical retail. But most importantly for one panelist was ensuring that every level of leadership at a retailer is on board with these ideas. As innovations such as augmented reality and voice assistants become more mainstream, consumers are expected to move even more of their shopping online. The majority of consumers who have shopped online using augmented reality would be willing to give up the apparel in-store buying experience entirely, according to a new report from Adtaxi. While the luxury buying process is largely still driven by physical stores, technology could make more consumers willing to forego the bricks-and-mortar experience in the coming years.

French fashion house Givenchy is further investing in ecommerce efforts, as luxury brands continue to evolve in the digital realm.

While at first luxury brands relied on their heritage and were more hesitant to join the digital revolution, these high-end fashion brands are now more inclined to create unique experiences through e-commerce. In support of this, Givenchy is expanding its transformed online destination to various European markets, supporting its wider omnichannel strategy.
Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands will now all have access to the LMVH-owned brand's digital store, with more markets to come throughout 2018. Next year, Givenchy's ecommerce will be extended to other parts of North America and Asia. A multifaceted plan for the ecommerce destination will help the site start off with a leg up. The label will be providing a series of exclusive online-only product collections designed by its new creative director, as well as launches prior to its bricks-and-mortar locations and monthly product updates.

Along with the ecommerce site drops in these areas, Givenchy will be devoting more time and innovation to its email and social media strategies. The brand is hoping to create a well rounded digital strategy that complements its in-store presence.

On the heels of its successful campaign during London Fashion Week, digital innovation platform The Institute of Digital Fashion is on a trajectory to global recognition — and its latest partnership might just be the catalyst for success. But at what cost? Joining forces with worldwide fast fashion conglomerate H&M, the startup has conceived, co-designed, and crafted both a physical and digital collection exclusively for the retail group’s latest Innovation Metaverse Design Story.

The five-piece collection was inspired by the convergence of digital and physical themes, with each garment created as a means of exploring concepts of digital environmentalism. “In addition to the endless creative possibilities, it also allows us to propose a more sustainable and inclusive fashion vision that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world,” Ann-Sofie Johansson, creative advisor at H&M, states on the brand’s dedicated website. 

Alongside the cross-boundary capsule, the garments are also available to wear using an AR lens on the H&M app. A campaign film featuring renowned models Kristen McMenamy and Vittoria Ceretti in both digital and physical designs has also been put out. 

Having seen revenue plummet at brick-and-mortar stores in North America and Europe this year, global brands are increasingly using China to experiment with more innovative retail strategies that can be rolled out worldwide once consumers are able to safely settle into a new (shopping) normal.

Of these strategies, perhaps the most important for Western brands has been the concept of a digitally native or “smart” store — one that closes the loop between online experiences and offline retail. As physical stores shut their doors at the beginning of the year in China in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, Nike moved quickly to retool marketing efforts and reach housebound consumers via content that included a smooth path to (online) purchase. The thinking behind this pivot went beyond just trying to keep consumers from forgetting about Nike while still spending online — a hope that strong digital efforts would translate to consumers heading back to brick-and-mortar retail once stores reopened. For Nike, following months of livestreamed workouts (among other digital offerings), this meant a deep integration of online and offline in its revamped, 22,000-square-foot Guangzhou store, which included an inaugural “Nike Experience” that gives members who use its app access to workshops and workouts offered within the store and around the city, and Nike Fit, a technology that scans consumers’ feet and maps data points in their member profiles, helping them ensure a perfect fit when making future purchases via the Nike website.

This type of digital experimentation has also been adopted by luxury brands such as Burberry, which unveiled its Open Spaces store in Shenzhen this summer in collaboration with Tencent. After stepping through its doors, customers are guided by a digital point system called “social currency” (not to be confused with “social credit”), which tallies an in-store activity and engagement with the brand through a customized WeChat mini-program, which also gives consumers the ability to view and share content, reserve a themed fitting room within the store, and unlock items that are available at purchase at Thomas’s Café (named after the brand’s founder).

Millennials’ coming-of-age and entrance into the luxury market have caused new trends in retail to emerge to meet consumer demands.

The rise of digital and mobile commerce necessitates a new approach to in-store experience, and consumers’ tendency to interact with brands across many different devices likewise demands a “total retail,” or omnichannel, experience. New technology offers a number of opportunities for brands to take advantage of this shift.

85% of retailers anticipate a growth in their ecommerce sales next year, according to a new report from Boston Retail Partners.

Along with the rise in digital purchases, connected consumers have been given more power, as they drive retailers to adopt updated technology to better serve them. At the top of consumers’ list of expectations is a seamless experience across channels, or unified commerce, a step above omnichannel that enables a personalized experience regardless of how the consumers chooses to connect along their purchase path.

40% des Français pourraient se passer de magasin physique si le numérique proposait les mêmes services. Ce qui est évidemment impossible car chacun, malgré les passerelles entre onet off line, a son propre territoire d’expression. Une tendance qui dépasse 50% auprès des 25/34 ans, alors que les Franciliens et les 50/59 ans restent davantage attachés à leur magasin réel.

L’heure est maintenant à la généralisation et à la déclinaison de cette approche technologique avec le déploiement des écrans et tables tactiles, des bornes, vitrines ou miroirs interactifs, de la reconnaissance de mouvement ou faciale (le dernier must après le Big Retail Show), la réalité augmentée pour les présentations de produits 3D ou non, les puces NFC, RFID ou beacon, les vendeurs équipés de terminaux mobiles.