296: Reimagining The Role Of The Physical Store

Dive into the future of retail with this thought-provoking episode, where you’ll explore the evolving role of stores far beyond traditional sales spaces. From showrooms and delivery hubs to sustainability centers and community hubs, stores are being reimagined as multifunctional spaces that enhance customer experience and foster lasting relationships. Join Oliver Banks as he unveils the myriad ways in which modern stores are adapting to not just survive but thrive in today’s competitive retail landscape. In turn, consider how your stores can transform into a dynamic part of the retail revolution.

Listen to this podcast episode and:

• Explore if the traditional role of stores is fading in modern retail.
• Learn how technology blends with store operations to enhance customer experiences.
• Understand how stores are evolving into community hubs and collaborative spaces.
• Discover strategies for integrating multifunctional roles into your store design and operating model to stay competitive.

 

 

The 10 new roles of stores

• When Piggly Wiggly innovated the role of the store in 1916, it would forge the future of retail. The Store as the Classic Store is still a valid approach. The model isn’t broken and offers customers an easy-to-understand shopping experience where they can browse and purchase a physical range of products. Whilst some retailers are pursuing other store models, you can still be highly successful with the original role of the store in place.

During the episode, you discovered 10 evolving roles for physical stores:

• The store as a showroom: Acts as a physical touchpoint in the omnichannel journey, allowing customers to see, touch, and experience products without necessarily completing the sale on-site.
• The store as a delivery hub: Leverages the geographical distribution of a store estate to manage stock efficiently and speed up delivery times, enhancing convenience for customers.
• The store as a sustainability hub: Serves as a centre for sustainable practices, enabling propositions and services like product resale, repair, and remanufacture to promote the circular economy.
• The store as a stage: Becomes a platform for content creation and customer engagement, utilising livestreaming, expert advice, and video creation to connect with customers.
• The store as a billboard: Doubles as an advertising space where retail media networks grows, showcasing promotions and products through digital displays and in-store signage.

• The store as a customer support centre: Provides immediate, knowledgeable assistance with products on-hand, enhancing the customer service experience.
• The store as a spark of collaboration: Facilitates partnerships and pop-ups within its space, allowing for shared risks and benefits with other brands.
• The store as a personalisation and production factory: Offers custom product modifications and local manufacturing options, often utilising advanced technologies like 3D printing.
• The store as a community hubs: Functions as a gathering place for community events, fostering connections and building customer loyalty through shared experiences.
• The store as the third place: Creates a welcoming environment for people to hang out, work remotely, or meet with friends, extending beyond traditional shopping functions.

Additional episodes of the Retail Transformation Show

In episode 60: Your Store Is The Stage, Oliver explores how your store can be used to educate, inform and inspire customers, and put them as the hero at the heart of their own adventure.

Resale has been a major trend and is one of the building blocks towards a more circular economy. In episode 252: The Rise Of Resale And Recommerce, Adam Siegel of Recurate joined to explore the challenges and opportunities with recommerce.

Retail futurist, Doug Stephens joined the podcast in episode 144: Resurrecting Retail After The Pandemic where he explored how purpose can shape the role that a store plays. In turn, this allows a retail business to remain relevant and remain competitive in the face of the apex retail predators of Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba and JD.com.

And finally, physical stores also play a key role in omnichannel and unified commerce strategies. So, also be sure to check out episode 265: The Challenges Of Unified Commerce with Bain’s Bala Parameshwaran and Aptos’s Nikki Baird.