Romaine Calm
The retail industry has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, and it continues to evolve quickly. With physical retail in the spotlight in recent times, many retailers now agree the solution to bring customers back into stores — especially after remaining closed for most of the year — lies in experiential retail.
The emergence of experiential retail has been a saving grace keeping physical stores alive. Consumers make purchases because the products they love evoke certain emotion, therefore, if retailers are able to create an in-store experience that magnify those emotions, they have a better chance of drawing people away from their screens and towards their entrances.
One industry that has been slow to adapt to this revolution, however, is grocery stores.
Although innovation continues to usurp obsolete systems, one thing we can all agree on is that humans will always need to eat food, and while the act of buying food will never go away, how we buy it will certainly evolve.
For many shoppers, the coronavirus pandemic was the push they needed to try online grocery shopping. In the U.S. 3–4% of grocery spending was online before the coronavirus outbreak; that has now surged to 10–15%, according to Bain & Company. Despite significant investments from Amazon and Walmart and third-party delivery services such as Instacart, FreshDirect, and Shipt, ordering groceries online still has its flaws.
So, now grocery stores are thinking outside the box to lure back customers. Understanding that in grocery stores 2.0, customers won’t choose the store because of the products but rather because it offers a convenience or is more focused on experience. Think cooking classes, wine tastings, restaurants, check-out free payments, and vegetables being grown in aisle three. Hold the phone, let’s dig deeper on this last point.
Don’t be surprised if next time you go to the supermarket you see an aisle lit up by LED lights. These magenta glowing lights along with hydroponic systems are growing food for your dinner that night. InFarm, a Berlin based vertical farming company, wants to take that average 1,500-mile distance produce travels to get to your grocery store, down to 0 miles. Through placing cabinets in aisles growing fresh produce like lettuce, kale, basil, dill, mint, and more, shoppers will be able to pick their own product from these units in grocery aisles, and have just gone live in QFC supermarkets in Seattle.
Undoubtedly grocery stores became complacent, too focused on the transactional act, and put the idea of fostering a closer relationship with customers back of mind. Now, fashion retail stores have paved the way for a more experiential touch, and in the near future, I hope we see grocery stores that look worlds different than they do today.
Hamish Baillieu
