rs.  According to Newman, one of the main reasons many retailers struggle is that they view customers as “a cost sink” – and customers can tell. Customers, not profits, need to be at the centre of a retailer’s business if they hope to succeed. “Most retailers tend to focus on the top of the funnel: on their return on advertising. That’s not the future of retail,” Newman said at Retail Fest earlier this month. “Instead, you need to focus on improving the lifetime value of your customers.” Customers are for life, not just for Christmas One of the major missed opportunities of most retailers is that in the rush to gain new customers, they often fail to treat their existing ones well, said Newman.  Chasing new customers may be a good way of showcasing growth, but a 5 per cent increase in customer retention can lead to a 25 to 95 per cent increase in profit according to Harvard Business Review.  “If you want to be truly customer-centric, you need to move beyond looking at [providing a good customer experience] as a return on investment, and instead look at it as a return on involvement,” Newman said.  “Retailers need to involve their customers more, and start talking to them more.” There are several concrete ways of doing this, Newman explained. It sounds obvious, but start treating your customers like people and not numbers. Everyone appreciates thoughtful gestures, so brands should factor that into how they communicate with customers. Delivering a product? Send a little gift with it to show the purchase is appreciated. Asking a customer to fill out a survey? Offer them a discount on their next purchase. “Random acts of kindness are brilliant little micro-moments that can go a long way in turning someone from a transaction into a fan,” Newman said.  Additionally, brand leaders should think about what they would want in a shopping experience, and then deliver it.  Omnichannel experiences like click-and-collect and endless aisle are fast becoming the norm, and any brand that doesn’t spend the time and money to get them right will simply lose customers.  “That’s the experience we all want, and if you don’t deliver it, we’re going to go somewhere else,” Newman said. “It’s simple. It’s black and white.” Customers are also increasingly weighing up a product’s cost on the planet, as well as the impact on those who made it, when deciding what to buy. And while there is research that shows many customers are currently sharing these views in surveys while continuing to support fast fashion retailers, Newman urges retailers not to ignore the trend. “What you’ll find over the next few years is that you’ll increasingly be able to buy new, secondhand, and even rent products,” Newman said.  “We might even get to a point where buying something new is the last resort, and people are more likely to swap or rent items when they need them. There’s no timeline as to when we’ll get there, but my instinct tells me that’s where we’re headed, and many retailers are going to need to adjust.” What about the metaverse? When looking forward to the next few years of retail, it’s hard not to look at the millions of dollars being spent in the metaverse as the next big channel, Newman said, and that’s exactly what it is: another channel to utilise. “There’s absolutely money to be made on [the metaverse], but each brand needs to reflect on who they are, who their customers are, and if they’re actually there,” Newman said.  “At the moment, it’s mainly populated by technology enthusiasts and early adopters, but Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25 per cent of customers will have used the metaverse.“It’ll be a significant channel in the future, but brands need to figure out how relevant it is to them or their customers.”