As the digital sphere continues grow, the biggest threats for bricks and mortar retailers are low prices and the convenience associated with online shopping, however, where online shopping is limited is its ability to engage with shoppers and provide an interactive shopping experience.
This is a key area for both brands and retailers to start directing marketing focus to ensure people continue to visit physical stores.
The shopping experience is difficult to replicate for online retailers and plays a huge role in purchasing decisions of customers. Instore atmospherics in particular, can have a huge impact on shopper behaviour, which is greatly influenced by creative installations and interactive designs.
Within this realm there are several promising areas for innovation that brands and companies can take advantage of to better leverage the customer’s instore experience.
1. Shopper centric store layout
Retailers need to consider the best methods to tailor their products more towards the needs and habits of the consumer.
Traditional marketing principles are based on segmenting the market and adopting different formats to cater to different segments. Retailers may want to consider adopting this into their own model by creating stores within stores to target specific customer preferences.
For instance, Woolworths’ partnership with Jamie Oliver represents a great opportunity to create a branded deli section to feature all of Jamie’s top products and recipes.
2. Customised sensory experiences
A huge influencer for shopping behaviour is the sensory experience. Successful marketers will need to better understand how shoppers and consumers respond to different sensory cues and determine the best methods to leverage it into a transaction.
A good place for brands to start is to focus on enhancing elements that appeal to the senses, such as background music, colours, scent, and lighting, so customers aren’t just being a sold a product but more so an experience.
3. Innovations in instore merchandising
When entering a store, shoppers generally have a mental budget that includes ‘instore slack’ to accommodate impulse purchasing.
Instore slack is the approximate figure that is set aside for making unplanned purchases and resisting unplanned purchases once this slack is exhausted. The top brands already encourage impulse purchases with key messaging and targeted instore advertising.
There’s still obvious potential for instore innovation that can’t be matched online. Aisle placement, the use of technology, premium shelf positioning, and innovative displays are all exciting areas for brands to explore.
Kirsty Dollisson is the GM of TorchMedia, a specialist out of home media provider with a focus on shopper and commuter facing solutions.
