Liquid Retail, Part 3: Digital Dreaming

A 6-part guide to the key trends changing the face of retail
Featured in A1 Retail Magazine

Part 3: Digital Dreaming

Liquid retail is the fluid approach retailers need to adopt to survive and thrive.

By Emma Gullick, Associate Creative Director at design agency Phoenix Wharf

Phygital Shadowing and Self-Command

Whilst most retailers focus on the harmony between their bricks and mortar and digital offers, there’s a risk of missing out on one of the most interesting areas of innovation right now: the ‘phytigal’ area in-between, as retailers shadow customers moving from e-search to physical spaces in increasingly sophisticated ways and consumers use tech to impact on what they find when they get there.

Personal Shopping

Luxury e-tailer MATCHESFASHION, for example, is focusing on the fitting room as a window to consumer behaviour. Its App lets users pre-select items to try on within 90 minutes at its London flagship store, whilst pre-alerting its personal shoppers, who select extra pieces for customers to trial, based on online wish lists, abandoned baskets and previous purchases.

Social Opportunism

Enabling social media opportunities is a strategy that’s been growing for a while, with retailers creating dedicated ‘wow’ areas to maximise engagement. L’Occitane, for example, installed an interactive multi-camera photo booth within its Regent Street flagship, capturing customers against a fun and playful backdrop and uploading not only to social media but offering a physical print-out to take home.

Phygital Links

Retailers who began life online but now favour some form of physical engagement also look to technology to ensure customers move easily between channels. Online design brand MADE.com opened a one-month pop-up showroom in Stockholm, allowing customers to test out best selling products, before shopping via the App, on their smartphones, on in-store screens or with a MADE team member to complete their purchase.

From Social to Anti-social

In the rush to connect, it’s important to recognise not all consumers crave interpersonal interaction. Whilst new voice-controlled mirrors can be told to ‘take a selfie’, there are customers at the other extreme who’d rather keep things impersonal. One major sports brand is currently allowing consumers to use special IDs to reserve sneakers online and then collect from a self-service locker at its New York and Shanghai stores and try on, all completely unassisted.

Zero Tech

Fashion loves to react against trends once they’ve gone mainstream, so the no-tech trend should also come as no surprise. At American Festival Coachella, for example, Adidas hosted a phone-free pool party called ‘You Had to Be There’. Attendees RSVP’d before receiving venue details and were then asked to leave their phones behind on arrival in portable lockable pouches, maximising the feeling of exclusivity and privacy. What happens at Coachella stays at Coachella!