It's all about the experience

As the world is turning ever more towards technology and digital platform it is becoming more important for brand to make there retail experience more memorable.

I personally have noticed within my own shopping experiences (practically every week) that shops are trying ever more to have a physical connection to the consumer, to deter us from making online purchases, and getting the consumer away from behind are computer screens and into the physical instore environment that they pump so much money into each year to make more aesthetically appealing and enjoyable.

But in most cases retailers are getting this wrong by either trying too are or not pushing enough getting it wrong.

“Customer experience is...the future of how physical retailers will generate revenue. Experiences won’t just sell products. Experiences will be the products.” – Quote from BOF

Sitting in my lectures and seminars we are always being told how can we connect more with the consumer, make them interested and make an overall remunerable experience. It’s a competitive gap in the market that so many brands are trying to fill.

And from this we as consumers are starting to make more purchases instore based on the physical experience on offer by many brands, retailers are almost selling the experience of being instore as more of a product rather than a concept.

But still quite often to none brands still aren’t quite hitting the mark, yes there is slow growth coming across but nothing in my personal experience that has really struck me as being a wow moment.

Although one high street brand that I think is ahead of the competitors when it comes to customer experience is Lush, it’s something that has been a driving force for numerus years. There is welcoming environment (that is if you can handle the concoction of smells that glide around the air) created within every store, yes a lot of their experience is to so with the aesthetic of the store through there visually fun layouts.

But there much more that Lush done that I feel makes their customer experience didn’t to what is currently on offer within my high street retail environments, which the open opportunity you have to interact with the product in store. The staff are extremely help full and allow for demonstrations on how a lot of their products work, whether this is from showing of the magical bath bombs that have what feel like endless colour changes or the interactive displays that allow you (personally) to physically feel the products.

Yes, there is still room for the brand to improve they could further refine the entire customer journey taking apart every component, considering each point of contact the customer has within the store environment and looking again at the brand story incorporating it in every part of this journey.

If a retailor is going to delve into this they need to go full force, thinking of it as a production the staff as the cast/ crew members, the store and the stage with the customers being the audience. Doing it to the highest of quality will need them wanting more, coming back at later dates purely for the EXPERIENCE.