Fashion retail: playing by the new rules
RETAIL SPACES
Traditional retail spaces are turning into spaces where visitors not only choose goods and make purchases, but also spend time, and not only free. And indeed, many millennials are freelancers without permanent employment, for whom places suitable for business meetings and work are attractive.
The role of offline stores is changing – they are necessary for promotion, organization of events and meetings with the target audience. For this purpose, some online retailers specifically open outlets. This allows them to invite the best customers who can get to know the brand on a physical level. The right steps are to attract the most loyal customers who talk a lot about the company and spread information on social networks, as well as the fashion elite who broadcast impressions in communities among followers.
The traffic of an offline store, as Irina Kushnerevich notes, is not always an indicator of success. An interesting experience and vivid emotions combined with word of mouth can lead to the fact that the number of people who learn about the brand will increase by several orders of magnitude. And among those who get to know him through social networks, new buyers may appear.
The store space becomes a place where visitors spend time getting new impressions and valuable knowledge. Many retailers focus on training, for example, in APPLE stores they sell not goods, but experience, trying to help customers. Shopping centers organize themed clubs, invite you to free meetings with famous people, as well as lectures and classes on fashion, style, cooking, etc., while at the same time providing visitors with special offers and discounts.
The brand's popularity is promoted by the opening of temporary pop-up stores. For example, Nike, a representative of the mass market, opens outlets that function as an exhibition center or gallery, presenting archival samples on video and new collections. The concept of temporary spaces is associated with sporting events, and invitations are sent to clients as special VIP guests.
The concept of a club is gaining popularity in the luxury segment. Strategies are changing, and retailers are directing their efforts to build a dialogue with almost only one percent of the most loyal customers who come to the store with an unlimited budget. So, Dominico Vassa, the owner of women's and men's clothing stores, interior items and other goods in New York, created a new expanded space, opening a club for the best customers. Subject to payment of monthly fees, they can not only make purchases, but also visit a restaurant together with their guests, use the services of a women's salon and a hotel.
Three key features of the behavior of generation Y consumers:
- interested in simple and clear messages;
- react negatively to poor service and difficulties, for example, they may refuse to purchase if it takes several clicks to fulfill an order, filter messages, sending everything they don't like to spam;
- prefer to get an emotional experience in the process of making a purchase.
Ralph Lauren opened a club for clients in Milan, calling it the Ralph Lauren Palace. Only a part of the brand's adherents can enter this community, where they are offered exclusive products, design and materials, services for the personal cut of men's suits, as well as participation in events, for example, presentations of new collections.
The era of unrestrained consumption is over, and awareness is coming to replace it. The new generation does not put an equal sign between themselves and the brands whose products they use. Millennials want to buy by getting impressions and emotions. The industry is moving to the economy of experience, and it is experience that can become the basis of retail concepts that are attractive to the modern consumer.
Author: Elena Varnina
Photo: Shutterstock.com
