We've all read about the apparent demise of high-street retail, most of it put down to the massive move to online purchases. Shopping centres report a drop in footfall of 3.5% in September, compared to last year. House of Fraser and Debenhams are in real trouble. It seems that bricks and mortar retail is in desperate need of innovation.
Whilst in New York last week, I bought a mini camera tripod from Amazon. Nothing special in that. However the way I did it was very different. Amazon are experimenting with channels that supplement their pure online offering. The store in Spring Street, Soho that I made my purchase in is their first 4Star location. Every item on the shelves is rated by customers as more than 4*, new or 'trending'. Shelf edge prices are updated dynamically to match online. The place was heaving with customers. I suspect that the store will also stimulate additional online sales.
Other store formats are also being trialled. In Seattle, their 'Amazon Go' store allows Amazon Prime customers to register on entry, select their items and simply walk out with them. No sales assistant interaction, no cash desk. Purchases are simply billed to their Prime account. The way they do this is through a combination of camera tracking, RFid tags and other tech. The Prime store may just be an experiment (they trialled it for a while with Amazon staff only), but all credit for trying.
Having worked in retail for many years, this is these are the biggest innovations I have seen in a long time. A perfect example of bricks and mortar turning into bricks and clicks.
This could be seen in two ways. Either Amazon are going to swallow even more of the high street by parking their tanks there, or existing retailers are going to see this type of melded retail offering as their future. Amazon have been pioneers and innovators without peers - and this proves it.
Whilst in New York last week, I bought a mini camera tripod from Amazon. Nothing special in that. However the way I did it was very different. Amazon are experimenting with channels that supplement their pure online offering. The store in Spring Street, Soho that I made my purchase in is their first 4Star location. Every item on the shelves is rated by customers as more than 4*, new or 'trending'. Shelf edge prices are updated dynamically to match online. The place was heaving with customers. I suspect that the store will also stimulate additional online sales.Other store formats are also being trialled. In Seattle, their 'Amazon Go' store allows Amazon Prime customers to register on entry, select their items and simply walk out with them. No sales assistant interaction, no cash desk. Purchases are simply billed to their Prime account. The way they do this is through a combination of camera tracking, RFid tags and other tech. The Prime store may just be an experiment (they trialled it for a while with Amazon staff only), but all credit for trying.
Having worked in retail for many years, this is these are the biggest innovations I have seen in a long time. A perfect example of bricks and mortar turning into bricks and clicks.
This could be seen in two ways. Either Amazon are going to swallow even more of the high street by parking their tanks there, or existing retailers are going to see this type of melded retail offering as their future. Amazon have been pioneers and innovators without peers - and this proves it.
