We hear a lot these days about the need to create a “brand experience”.
And while we all may be sick of hearing people talk about it on LinkedIn, they’re not wrong. In a world of seemingly infinite choice, how do we stand out?
There are plenty of brands we can look to for inspiration today, certainly, but some of the original masters of this craft were the early department stores.
Stepping into these places for the first time, people were awestruck. This wasn’t a shop… it was a cathedral. Gleaming architecture, modern interior design, impeccable service. It was a place to dine, to socialise, to experience new sights and smells. For many, it was a taste of luxury that perhaps would never touch their day-to-day lives.
As the years and decades passed, a few department stores held true to their roots, but many lost their way. Bespoke design gave way to the reproducible. Luxury gave way to the affordable. Experience gave way to the convenient. Department stores became dime-a-dozen, mass produced boxes of steel and glass. Instead of a dazzling experience, they came to offer “a place where you can get lots of stuff”.
The problem is that, today, supermarkets do that. Costco does that. Amazon does that. Why would we battle with parking and traffic and crowds to get to a town centre department store, when all it offers is second-rate convenience?
The end is nigh?
Department stores are closing down in huge numbers. The UK has lost 83% of its department stores since the famous collapse of BHS (British Home Stores) in 2016. Another British juggernaut, Debenhams, bit the dust with the pandemic, and many of the survivors are closing a huge number of stores. It’s the same story in the USA, with ubiquitous brands like Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney closing branches at an alarming rate.
To be clear, this isn’t only department stores, and it isn’t all because of the pandemic. Bricks-and-mortar stores of all kinds have been battling with the shift to online shopping for many years. For some, the coronavirus was just the nail in an already-fairly-secure coffin lid.
Those that are holding on are having to evolve, one way or another. UK department store chain John Lewis is doing that by investing outside of its remaining stores, moving into real estate construction and financial services. But some are re-investing in their shopping experience in order to stay relevant.
Selfridges is a great example of a department store that has held to its path as an immersive brand experience. I remember so clearly the opening of their flagship store in Birmingham, UK, when I was a teenager. From its instant landmark exterior (an immense, wavy blue dome covered in giant silver buttons) to its sprawling multi-layered interior – it was an experience. Somewhere you wanted to be, even if you didn’t have much to spend.
Today, Selfridges is surviving by giving consumers more reasons to come to its stores than ever. Installing a cinema, a free indoor skating bowl, a giant floor piano, or how about getting married in their own wedding suite? This is a brand that knows how to deliver an experience.
But not all businesses have the space and the resources to make these kinds of bold moves. So what can smaller brands learn from this?
Surviving in the Age of Convenience
Bricks-and-mortar shopping is not dead. But it does have to work harder to inspire people to leave their sofas. Physical stores are not going to win the convenience war against online shopping (it’s hard to compete with shopping in your PJs with no queues or time constraints). Their mission is to remind people why it is more exciting to come into their stores.
What these early department stores created can serve as an inspiration. It was bold and unforgettable, yet accessible to the everyman and everywoman. On a smaller scale, this may be the approach more brands have to take. It may mean less branches, but more of a flagship approach to each store.
How they can do that is going to depend entirely on the business. It could take the shape of better in-store technology, perhaps allowing people to access the kind of information and reviews that they can find online while still getting to hold and feel the product. Or using augmented reality technology to help people interact with and visualise the products in new ways.
It could be the human touch, adding new services that personalise the shopping experience and provide expertise and opinions. It could be investing in the style and ambiance of the store to make it a relaxing, or exciting, or luxurious place to be.
Adidas and Lego have both just created stores that are great examples of combining many of these elements to create an unforgettable customer experience.
It’s a challenge that requires creativity, and an understanding of what your customers want and need. But if physical stores can’t provide something above convenience, then what chance have they got of surviving? We are entering a new age of retail, and it looks like the options are adapt or die.
My hope is that more stores will be inspired by the original vision of the department store. The scale may be much smaller for many businesses, but the mission is the same. They need to inspire. They need to awe. The goal is the softly muttered “wow” that escapes a customer’s lips as they step through your doors for the first time.
If you can achieve that, people might just get off their sofas.
If you’d like to discuss how Glory’s retail solutions can free up your staff to focus on customers and deliver a better experience, get in touch or you can read about it here.
