Offline retail goes experiential to fight online and attract consumers

The convenience of shopping from your cosy couch at highly discounted rates and having products delivered at the doorstep has transformed the shopping experience. With websites and apps delivering what consumers need whenever and wherever, brick-n-mortar is gradually working on innovative technologies to craft out experiences that stretches beyond a mere purchase. 

From 3-D, VR, lawns, basketball courts, to instinctive tech-enabled solutions, retailers are leveraging it all to make shopping at stores “experiential’’. And experiential retail is said to drive the Indian retail market, which Assocham predicts will reach $1.1 trillion by 2020.

“The offline retail space offers a lot of options for digital transformation given the competition and innovations in the retail space,” says Nina Lekhi, chief design curator and MD, Baggit.

Internationally, brands like GAP have infused augmented reality (AR) into stores to showcase before customers how apparel looks when worn. Samsung on the other hand has a kitchen with live demonstrations, and zones for television and gearVR experience at one of its stores in Canada. While Nike has a basketball trial zone surrounded by high definition screens at its NYC store where consumers can try on basketball shoes and play the game with in-store athletes to get a real feel of the shoes. 

Experts say brands are gearing up to disrupt offline retail by providing shoppers with an experience that is intuitive and immersive, something that will create memories.

Srinivasa Rao, senior vice president – marketing, Lifestyle, says barriers such as touch, feel, instant gratification and a tangible experience still pose a challenge on the online medium, but this is not the case offline. “Today, customers are more tech-savvy than ever. Hence providing digitally transformative experiences is crucial.” 

Lifestyle has devised a fitting room assistance programme that allows for technology-assisted size retrieval, whereby store assistants get alerted on the style and size needed by customers for trial. “This initiative has helped in enhancing our conversions and is now being scaled up across key stores,’’ says Rao.

E-fashion biggie Myntra, which is going strong with offline stores for its private label Roadster, has instituted initiatives that let customers do a self-checkout in 30 seconds, eliminating long queues and delays in checkout. This technology-induced feature allows customers to place products in a radio frequency identification enabled tray that captures product details and displays the bill immediately, which can then be paid through a card. According to Manohar Kamath, head, Myntra Fashion Brands, the Roadster Go store offers multiple innovations in the offline shopping experience “through a special amalgamation of fashion and technology. We have used first-in-class technology to address consumer pain points in the offline channel and deliver a rich blend of experience.”

Baggit creates stories which extend from the window display to the focal point and ‘’even the music in the store so that consumers have an immersive experience. This communication is also what consumers see online via digital, CRM to avoid any breaks in the experience,” says Lekhi. She adds that Baggit regularly explores digital visual merchandising options to break the clutter of shelf displays and enhance the storytelling that goes within the stores. “We are also on the verge of integrating tabs in the stores to provide contextual communication.” 

Backed by innovative solutions, brands are seeking expansions on the offline front. Lifestyle, which presently has 71 stores, is planning to open 12-14 more in the current financial year. “And eight to 10 more in the next fiscal,’’ says Rao. Myntra is looking to curate 50 Roadster Go stores across India by 2020.

Baggit will add two exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) each month. Lekhi says the brand is working to enhance the online-offline integration for superior consumer experience. While Tailorman, which retails custom-made menswear, has eight stores and will add three more in the next 12-18 months.

Experts say brands that acquire competitors claim to save the consumer money and bring prices down, but in reality, that’s often not the case. “The big guns playing the acquisition card often kill healthy competition. Together with their strong technology, distributor networks, brand equity and the large-volume-low-price strategy, it is impossible for a newer player to gain a foothold in the market,” say experts.

“What consumers want is a competitive market, and the ecosystem to come up with innovative solutions. That does not allow one brand to have a monopoly in a category,” says Pranay Swarup, co-founder and CEO, Chtrbox, an influencer marketing agency and technology platform.

But with the digital economy, consumers still take make the final decisions, feel experts. Swarup feels that consolidations and acquisitions are a natural phenomenon today considering the need for innovative solutions and technology disruption. According to Swarup, strong brands will either innovate or acquire for innovation, like Facebook (Instagram) or Google (YouTube).

“Most M&As are done to acquire the user-base of the competitor to reduce competition. However, the reality of the consumer internet businesses ensures that users don’t miss out on popular or innovative features (post-M&A) and the only duplication gets erased,” says Yash Mishra, founder and CEO, VoxWeb.

The internet can cushion consumers from the dangerous aspects of consolidation. Mishra says since the ‘’barrier to entry’’ for a new competitor is generally very low, especially in internet businesses, it is near impossible to achieve ‘’eco-system lock-in’’ even for a big incumbent. “There will never be a stable unassailable monopoly in any consumer internet business and consumers will be protected, ” explains Mishra.

Furthermore, millennial consumers are protecting their rights by being tech-savvy, experimentative and intuitive to changing market dynamics.

Every consumer today has a growing influence on social media and is smart enough to go for the best solutions, feels Swarup. “The inhibition to experiment is less. Consumers are willing to give new solutions a chance. This is the perspective and power that consumers must maintain, and keep brands accountable to their promises,” says Swarup. Moreover, consumers should stay “demanding’’ and not allow big brands to ‘’break promises’’. According to Mishra, one of the reasons WhatsApp became popular in many geographies is because of its promise of staying ad-free. “But now Facebook has started making ground to monetise WhatsApp by showing ads on the status section of the app.” Experts say consumers should remain vigilant and ensure that brands are not shifting their goals post acquisitions to suit their ‘’profit maximisation’’ agendas. 

A NEW LENSE

• Brick-n-mortar is gradually working on innovative technologies to craft out experiences that stretches beyond a mere purchase
   
• Experiential retail is said to drive the Indian retail market, which Assocham predicts will reach $1.1 trillion by 2020
   
• Experts say brands are gearing up to disrupt offline retail by providing shoppers with an experience that is intuitive and immersive, something that will create memories