It’s no secret that the UK retail industry is experiencing one of the tough periods in history. While it may be easy to think that the sector is dying, there are strong arguments to indicate it’s just experiencing growing pains and entering a new age.
This new age of retail is no longer a conversation of online versus offline. Instead, it is a seamless merger of the two – and that’s crucial in this day and age.
As online retailers look to expand into the offline world, traditional retailers are in a race to up their game and provide a holistic customer experience in order to capture sales and market share. Many retailers are already excelling at this: they’re trying to take the best elements of each sales channel, and combine them to ensure they offer customers consistency at each brand touchpoint.
There are a combination of factors causing this phenomenon.
Consumer expectations have evolved – and continue to evolve – because of the convenience online provides and because of society’s march towards digitisation in general. The physical store is now often regarded as a later port of call in the customer journey, although customers still expect retailers to be able to serve them at their convenience – regardless of location and time.
Another reason is changing times and attitudes. Shopping has always been about consumption and community, but there is growing evidence to suggest generations of shoppers are looking for deeper connections with brands and new ways to interact with them. They want full customer experience, and retailers need to find ways to be as innovative and creative as possible with this.
“Brands that get it right in the new age of retail” is a new Retail Gazette-Samsung white paper that picks out some of the retailers getting their strategies right in the new age of retail, focusing on compelling case studies where physical retail is truly alive and kicking.
It goes into detail on examples of retailers driving strong results and making waves with their shop design and approach to digital. The succeeding retailers more often than not have digital display solutions at the heart of their in-store strategies.
To find out more and to read the report in full, click here
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