Read what the Alice Wonders Co-Founders think, from an optimistic perspective, about the impacts of physical retail reopening and the shifts in consumer behavior under the “new normal.”
Ever since physical stores began closing due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, many retail professionals have entered a transition phase, a period of strategic preparation for the market to reopen its doors, with a great deal of planning and research involved.
During this time, nearly ninety days of closure, a lot has changed in the market. Remote work has demanded more competence and organization from people and companies. Many have started reinventing their jobs, roles and skills. We recently interviewed three Visual Merchandising professionals to find out what the new VM will look like and what they’re betting on for the first phase of reopening. Read more in the article published here on our blog.
At Alice Wonders, it was no different. After all, we’re also professionals serving physical retail, bringing technology, innovation and experiences to consumers. To talk about this topic, Alice Wonders Co-founders Alexandre Valdivia and Eric Winck shared the company’s perspective on this transition process and its new challenges. Check out AW’s take and its predictions for the future of physical retail in this article.
How did AW handle the closure of physical retail at first?
At the start of the pandemic, we made an effort to observe the landscape and try to figure out where the opportunities were and where the crisis would take us. Today, looking back on our journey, we can divide it into three phases:
- First, we tried to stay close to our clients; we didn’t let projects stall just because stores had closed. We knew it would be something provisional and temporary. We kept nurturing our relationships with clients, receiving proposals and quotes. In other words, we kept the projects’ flame alive, because we knew how important it was to be ready when reopening arrived.
- Second, it was time to pick up the pace, not to think about stopping. We started researching new ways to bring digital experiences to brands and people, with an eye on new business. We joined forces to be ready right out of the gate, or simply not fall behind.
- Third, as a result of our search for new ways to take part in the recovery and deliver innovation, leveraging our technology and experience, a new product was born: the Thermometer Kiosk. From there, we began creating other new products to help retailers and consumers in the post-quarantine recovery.
What are some ways to improve the consumer experience now that could make it better for good?
In the first phase of reopening physical spaces, retailers and brands will be held accountable for measures to protect against transmission and infection with the virus — which is exactly what we’re experiencing right now. As a result, there’s a greater need to rethink physical store spaces, in a very fast process, to deliver a better shopping experience. So the use of technology will be more important than ever, both to map the behavior of consumers who walk into the store and to improve visual merchandising. In that sense, we believe things won’t go back to the way they were, but will become more efficient, recognizing the value of providing a better experience for people.
Generally speaking, on a conceptual level, we’ll start to understand consumer behavior in terms of: what will bring a person to the store; what they’ll do once inside; will it be a visit to meet a basic need or to have direct contact with the products? And to understand what the retailer is offering its audience in that space, and whether it truly meets shoppers’ needs.
People will be eager to get out and move around. Retail can be that meeting point for socializing and experiences. And this concept involves rethinking both the products and the spaces — the store’s architecture and what it offers to those who walk in.
What will be different from retail before the pandemic?
We believe the physical store as an experience hub will be amplified. We won’t see it merely as a point of sale; it will be a transformation that happens very quickly, and this change will be necessary. Our strategy is to collect data at the POS that helps us understand consumer behavior. We extract this information to support brands’ BI and Innovation teams, which generate insights that translate into qualified sales. Perhaps now retailers will take greater advantage of the opportunity to conduct in-store research at the POS, and these strategies will be used more regularly.
During the AW Lives, we often said that retail was already transforming and COVID-19 simply accelerated the process. What will the role be of the physical stores that keep operating?
The store has a social role (welcoming people), and it has a duty to embrace this opportunity in an innovative way, delivering not just more experiences, but good experiences to people.
The pandemic gave rise to the term “new normal.” What do you predict for consumer behavior once retail fully reopens? (Will we see high, medium or low levels of consumption?)
It may be that the new normal is just a shortcoming we’ve had with ourselves all along, and now it’s become more evident, says Valdivia, who also recommends reading the article “The ‘new normal’ cliché: an excuse for those who were on autopilot.”
Given recent events, what we clearly see is that people are flocking back to the streets and stores, even during this period of gradual reopening. From a retail standpoint, we’re still in a transition process until we have a coronavirus vaccine and everything settles down. Until that happens, a true new normal won’t be defined that allows us to understand new human behavior. However, we believe the new normal may emerge through the pursuit of experience at the point of sale, as a way to understand consumer behavior at this moment.
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