What is today’s retail space?

With the point of purchase shifting online what is the future of the brick and mortar store? the shopping center? the mall? what do we do when we go to ‘the store?’ malls and stores will still be essential in the future retail chain events, from need, to brand identification to purchase, but as the retail marketplace shifts online the recalibration of the shopper experience is in order. Malls of the future will remain congregating points for people to interact and engage but will an individual store remain the point of purchase in order for it to maintain a space? or will there be other ways, through a ‘social mediation’ of the chain of purchasing events lead back to what makes the ‘brick and mortar’ store of old still viable, even Cutting Edge. 

here is an example of what’s taking shape: Best Buy once in the point position for electronics purchases now is struggling to survive. Why? The stores themselves have just as much foot traffic as ever but that ‘foot traffic isn’t translating to checkout purchases like it once used to. Instead many rome through the interactive experience, touching and holding the product only to leave the store and find a better deal at Amazon or perhaps another online retailer. What happens to that sale? and where was Best Buy in the equation? Best Buy, which only reprints the generic ‘brick and mortar’ store experience gets nothing however provided a necessary link in the purchasing chain. Necessary in several fold both in the interaction with the product but also the fundamentally humanistic need to interact with others. To ‘people watch’ to ‘mingle’. Sure we can all now sit at home in our Jammies and shop from the comfort of home but every once in a while there is the need to ‘go out’ and have something to do like going to the ‘Mall’. 

People are still going to still need malls especially for clothing, cause you never know if something fits or what’s in season, or if there are any deals on the clearance rack however even that is changing. All Saints Spitfields is a perfect example and one of my favorite places to shop. The trendy distressed ‘industrial revolution’ interior, fortress like chaining rooms, stunningly gorgeous staff and excellent music make it a place to go but do I buy there? Usually (and especially since they are from the UK and the sizing is a little different than typical American sizing) I try things on in store then return home to ‘buy it’ online. Why? Well I find the same stuff for better deals online. All Saints must be aware of this otherwise they wouldn’t have iPads with their App in stores. 

The best example, and the folks that, like many other advances, lead this is Apple. the Apple store is a ‘clean room’ interior that reminds one of the clean rooms where all these iPhones and iPads must have been made. In the store there is plenty of staff to answer questions and a genuine hustle and bustle of activity that one cannot ignore. Now where Apple got it right is the fact that for the store to succeed a patron entering a store doesn't need to buy a thing only to walk out with a feeling based on the experience within the store. Apple has it easy since they are their own merchandise (which is also a key to future retail is the streamlining of product in store _ which is also why Best Buy fails) which means that the sale of the ‘merchandise’ no matter what form that sale comes in is what supports the brand and the brand supports the store. 

The new paradigm of the shopping experience has evolved. Experiential, Interactivity and Association. 

Shifting gears the best example of this is McDonald’s. The only thing keeping the doors open is ‘Association’ We know the experience we plan to expect. It’s a circle that keeps people coming back. On a roadtrip you need look no further for a guarantee of consistency than McDonalds. The ‘Association’ is a brand you trust, the ‘Experiential’ is the fact you know it’s clean and they have a bathroom, that’s hopefully also clean. The interactive is the free WiFi and the play area. Which isn’t much in the fast paced arena of fast food when compared to Chipolte. Which also is predictably clean but the consumer gets the ‘Interactiveness’ of choosing their own ingredients (and since most people in the world don’t live next to Mexico) the ‘Association’ with the idea of eating ‘Authentic Mexican’ food, which then by default becomes the new norm for that cuisine. 

Which brings us back to Shopper Experience and the new Paradigm for retail. Why do bring up fast food? because the paradigm is as simple as why McDonalds struggles with new menu items, nifty ads with La Bron James and fun games and why Best Buy cannot beat the bottom line are the missing links that both these Behemoth chains struggle with is how to profit at what you are doing right and move away from the model of what they are doing wrong. In the case of McDonalds it’s not enough interactive and with Best Buy its about not being able to capitalize on the abundance of interactivity. What Apple and Chipolte do right is exactly the opposite. 

The new Paradigm is creating space for people to go and to experience the world of your brand. have you ever felt like being in an Apple store feels like productivity in motion? Like all things are possible and you are watching the future unfold in front of you? Well that’s the point. Makes you want to get a computer or iPad and get in the ‘game’ get your ‘creative on’. Makes you covet that product covet that way of life. Within that you set a goal to ‘have’ cause in order to ‘become’ your dreams you can do so easier if you had ‘that’ item. 

Sound and Music are at the forefront of this market. Like a drug; what experience doesn't seem richer and more involving than one with great sound. Who would watch a movie without the soundtrack? Well where is the soundtrack to life but in your ears? And what if the ‘Brick and Mortar’ store of old erupted and became mobile? What if the same concepts of Association, Interaction and experience followed, well, the following? But brought with it the same fundamentals of brand and not a product was sold; just the idea, just the experience. What would that be worth? To have a brand experience that became so intertwined with the identity of the audience that one couldn’t relate without the other. Starbucks did it to coffee. The sound and music experience is barely at the new threshold of this taking shape. Who will be at the forefront? 

Every year millions flock to the festivals of Coachella, Bonneru, Sasquatch, SXSW, Sundance and many more. The music scene has changed. Album sales are no longer at the forefront. yet still there is a rapidly growing market for music. Building brand identity is much more than what NBA player is listing to his pre game warm up on. It’s about creating an idea that transcends the many layers of life. Enriching moments and building a sense of self identity within the greater deluge of the ‘mass self’.  

So a ‘store’ tomorrow can be many more things than a store of yesterday and may it might look like a store of yesteryear long before the Brick and Mortar era. It can be in one place or it can be a set of ideas and functionalities that moves from place to place delivering a consistent on brand communication and experience. It may or may not have product to sell or registers to sell it at. 

How to quantify this experience? In short you may never know who bought your product, where or why. Here is an idea for furthering outreach and quantification: promo codes and downloadable apps are the answer. Sharable, pin able, instagramable, vineable. Who doesn’t love a deal? Creating a network of social promo codes. Here is the grassroots idea. Who is the best sales person for your product? The satisfied customer friend of a friend. What if there was a way of tracking promo codes and promo code ‘shares’ that result in even more savings or other rewards. What if you could turn everyone who walks into your experiential store environment into a salesperson? Since the point of sale is online there is no end to who could be selling this item for you. What if there was a way to incentivise this role? And what if no one really knew that they were directly helping this process? 

The Promo Code of today isn’t the Promo Code of tomorrow. Tomorrow’s promo code is in a way ‘unique’ to the first person who has it. From then each ‘share’ of that code results in future savings, rewards and greater interactivity the more it’s shared and used. Kinda like a virus the idea behind each promo code is that it spreads. 

Back in the day the only way the salesperson made their commission or quota is if the customer made a purchase before they left the store. But no one likes a hard sell. What if that that sales person just gave the consumer a card or ‘takeaway’ and the messaging on that card was an app or a promo code. Each app download or sale with promo code could be toggled back to the sales person and even venue of the point of contact.  

What’s the best part of stepping on a flight with Virgin America? You know you are there…

Drawing this back to the mall and store experience. Taking from what we have learned from the festival store experience how can we translate that back into the ‘brick and mortar’ store. Back in the day part of the experience of music wasn’t just the concert it was also the act of going to the store and sifting through records and interacting with people who might be into the same thing as yourself. The future music store could be about the same only there are no sales going on, only experience. What experiences can we count on people wanting to come to? Live music, DJ’s. Perhaps the music store of the future looks more like a club than a record shop. but the essence remains the same. Engagement. Bringing people into a unique environment, making them feel special even important. Letting them experience the ‘scene’ that they want to relate to and they will. The best thing about the old record stores were the live shows, Amoeba and some others still do it. In the new ‘retail’ what if the store was just that.. a show?

In the future we may not be walking out of the store with a product but with a product in mind and at that… didn’t the store serve it’s purpose?

Are we Atlantis?

I love thinking about the extreme future, it's one of my passions or compulsions. I can't seem to figure it out. One of the topics I think about most when I visualize the extreme future is the extreme past. Perhaps it's actual history but sometimes I like to think of fabled history. My favorite is Atlantis. I don't imagine it in Plato's vision of ancient the Greek lost continent. Moreover  I see it as an idea or riddle about a people who used the power of the 'crystal' to create great technological advancements, to rule the world and perhaps even reach the stars. This is just an idea of an alternate reality, a Foundation, in Isaac Assimov terms. Certainly this never happened. We've never unearthed remnants of a 'higher technology' or cities rivaling our own. But what if... What if there was a civilization that was able to harness physics and create technology to such a degree that all their learning throughout the ages went into the technology? The books and passed down knowledge all became synthesized that in a sense without the technology it didn't any longer exist in reality; it became 'virtual'. If the virtual membrane was shattered all knowledge lost. Man is back into the stone age, no better off than 10 millennia before, living in caves, wallowing in the dirt, eking out a marginal existence, struggling to survive.

How are we like this culture? Most of us can remember a time not long ago when our mother's would make actual meals, bake bread, sow clothes. When our father's would mow their own grass, grow vegetables, change their own oil and wash the car. Lessons in penmanship had as much to do with the ability to legibly write and mentally conceptualize. Books and the Library were the sources of knowledge and it was hard bound, built on ages of knowledge and here to stay.

The year is 2013 and students in the first grade are being instructed in iPad. Most students use the Library on their college campuses for free WiFi and a quiet space to study more than they do for books. Children grow up thinking meals come from a Fast Food Chain and not the farm. Cooking is now matrix of mixing pre-made ingredients. All domestic tasks from home cleaning, childcare and your morning coffee are being farmed out to strangers.

The 'Third Wave' began in the 1990's and blossomed in the 2000's. It is totally conceivable and extremely realistic that within a decade or two all knowledge that humankind has will be digitally based. All that we have for the basis of our own day to day sustenance will be carried out by 'others' (increasingly robotic in orientation). Even our own human core selves will  begin to evolve and be augmented to keep pace with the machines we've created.

I assure you I am no luddite; I fully believe and am deeply excited about the future both near and far. I think the capabilities on so many fronts that we are on the verge of breaking through on are mind-blowing.

My thought is this: What if the technology we grow so dependent on is lost? Think about it this way: if the technology 125 years ago was lost how far back would those people be? Most of the things they do to survive they already know and practice everyday. To put it another way. Sure, the greatest Bass fishermen alive probably lives today but how many of us know how to fish Bass? And the reason that guy is the greatest Bass fisherman ever is thanks to hundreds of years of bass fishing. Get the point? Most of us don't know shit. We know how to send emails, write code, make proposals, offer incentives. But we are losing our grasp on the sustenance of 'organic life.'

If today a EMP detonation high above the sky devastated our technological infrastructure where would we be? Imagine that scenario in 20-50 years. We do not have the ability to survive this. Cities would become bloodbaths in the fight for survival. Gangs would rise around Warlords looking to control and profit on the short supply of resources. If cut off from routine shipments most inner-city grocery stores would run out of food in a few days. Looting, rioting would engulf and destroy the cities from within. Those who make it to the outlying areas and the 'country' would find Warlords and bandits holding ground there making passage treacherous and next to impossible. Barbarism and chaos run rampant...

The further we get from the 'Dark Ages' the more probable of it's return. Steps backward and forward along the ladder of human evolution are nothing new. Even if Atlantis never existed mankind has had its share of near misses. The Roman's were on the verge of a technological breakthrough with physics 2000 years before Einstein yet they were sacked by the barbarian Vandals and Goths. America, the Rome of our times sits upon this tenuous stack holding the framework of of this global hierarchy in her hands. If something happens to America the chain reaction would be a domino effect of chaos felt in every corner throughout the world