http://aspirecq.com/?p=66
“Hey we got to go into the store on the corner, they’ve got a football field in the middle of it, I bet I can score more goals then you.” “Not before we go into this dress shop I just got a text saying they’ve just received a new range from my favourite designer in my size, I got to see what it looks like on me on their life size interactive screen”. “I just got a text too; we can get 2 coffees for the price of one just across the street”.
Will this be East Street, Rockhampton in a few years? One hopes something like this will happen. In a way it’s got to. More competition for shopper’s dollars will drive it. Competition like a Westfield Shopping Centre with two hundred plus shops, 3000 brands, open 24 hours a day seven days a week with trolleys ready now to take Central Queenslanders money. This is no aspiration for the future it’s here. Didn’t you notice it getting built; after all it’s a huge site. In fact Westfield declared it was ready for business with a full page advertisement in last Saturday’s paper. Not a bricks and mortar shopping centre an online shopping centre. On-line shopping, how convenient is that. And it is going to get even easier to do, as technology continues to delve into the realms of science fiction. The 2002 movie “Minority Report” is now practically reality, well the shopping part anyway. Apparently you’ll be able to buy online just by putting on a pair of glasses, no computer screen needed. Will online shopping (or e-commerce) be a nail in the coffin of bricks and mortar stores or energises them. What will the shopping centre of the future look like and what of locally owned stores? I’m no shopaholic, but my general observation of shopping centres is that they’re pretty much the same. The size may vary but the general mix of tenants in all centres is pretty much the same, national stores and franchises. A walk around any regional city CBD however reveals stores you don’t find in shopping centres. Sure it might be a rent issue, but maybe because of it CBD shopping can reveal a surprising variety of shops, products and services. Shopping can be just going to pre-determined destinations to buy particular products. It can also be a journey, a social occasion, interacting with people, making unplanned visits to stores and purchases. Thus I see the challenge for retailers, particularly local businesses is to make this journey enthralling, maybe even enchanting. Technology is going to continually raise the benchmark of what enthralling is. Awesome service and competitive pricing will also be essential for local shops to survive. However hasn’t this always been the case? Online shopping can be viewed as a threat or an opportunity. Westfield decided to go online because of the threat of online stores like E-Bay, but now they see it as an opportunity to expand into markets like Central Queensland without building a physical centre. Personal experience with a local business threatened by cheaper online stores provided a surprising result. After they got their e-commerce web site built, and with some promotion through Facebook not only did they start getting online orders but visitation to their bricks and mortar store also increased. The variety of stock their web site revealed resulted in more people dropping into the store, paying more than they could have online. It’s got to the point the business has employed an additional team member. There will always be shoppers who want to enjoy the journey as much as their purchases. The journey will quite likely evolve to standing in front of life size screens waving your hands around to see what you look like in the latest fashions with the co-ordinating accessories, clicking the Facebook link to get friends opinions before making a purchase. A sports store (or any store) having a digital football (soccer) field on the floor encouraging the customer to play a game with a digital ball. An enthralling journey, that’s the challenge for local retailers. Provide an off-line experience that shoppers enjoy, they’ll go online and let others know. Being unique provides the locally owned and operated business the opportunity to stay open on and off line. If you’re a retailer what kind of future are you going to create for your customer?