February 06, 2020
As we stand on the doorstep of a new decade, everyone is focused on what the next 10 years are likely to bring. With technological advances arriving faster than most people could ever have predicted, the question of where we might be five or 10 years from now is a very relevant topic. One area where we see a lot of discourse on the subject is in retail.
One answer to the question of where retail might be heading is into the realm of connected experiences. Luckily, Doug Stephens of Retail Prophet and I were recently able to sit down with RETHINK Retail to talk about just that.
The full conversation ranged for more than an hour and covered a number of different topics from harsh truths about the efficacy of popups to the possibilities of robotics in retail spaces. In the section of the conversation seen in the video above, we covered how the current wave of connected experiences will shape the future of retail in brick and mortar locations.
These connected experiences that will typify this next wave are unlike anything retail has ever seen before. It carries situations in which your computer, phone, and smartwatch are all working in concert with the physical space of the store to better define your shopping experience.
If getting a working idea of what that might look like in a practical sense sounds difficult, look no further than the work Valtech has already done with Levi’s Tailor Shop. When the world’s top denim brand came to us looking to revolutionize their platform to include more connected experiences, Valtech was able to create a tool that would enable store tailors to provide a better customer experience, across languages, content and product resources.
The result? Levi’s locations in New York Times Square, Milan, and SoHo Shanghai have all adapted to a number of different connected experiences. Want to customize a piece of existing Levi’s merchandise to your own specifications? The digital tailor shop allows customers to jump in and customize or completely design their own clothing, and then pick it up in the store. For people who don’t live in those areas, the virtual tour of their locations is complete with information about the different sections of the store as well as specifics about stocked items. And that’s just the beginning.
Experiences like shopping at Levi’s are sure to become the new norm as retail continues to progress and connected experiences continue to be the primary focus. The tectonic plates of the internet are shifting. Are you ready to ride that wave with the other brand leaders of the world, or are you getting left behind?
