The restrictions on movement and contact imposed in the battle against the Corona virus are forcing consumers to rely more heavily on digital channels and their tools for obtaining products and services. Companies are required to provide and support more extensive digital tools of self-service for customers to be used in their homes. Some companies… Read More
Building Experiences Around Tea
Drinking good quality tea is an experience inseparable from the product ‘tea’ and its attributes. The flavour and aroma of the tea are experienced by our senses (taste as well as smell). The attributes of a drink product like tea have to be felt, and consumers now are more interested in that experience than in… Read More
The Attraction of Colourful Displays of Merchandise
Colour has a strong attraction power: it can capture visual attention faster than other design features; it can be inviting and appealing; and colours can evoke specific feelings and emotions of consumers. Furthermore, colours may play an important role in establishing a brand image. Henceforth, colour serves in particular as a primary tool in store… Read More
Seeing Beyond Retail in Shopping Centres
In recent years shopping centres are inclined to re-evaluate their goals and the functions they are required to fulfill for their customers. The proprietors are facing growing difficulties to attract shoppers to visit and buy at the stores in their shopping centres. Electronic commerce is considered a major factor contributing to the decrease in consumer… Read More
Changing Priorities for Stores and Shops
Store and shop owners need to adjust to changes in shopper behaviour; for example: shoppers do more research online on products of relevance before visiting a physical store — they prepare for their visit and come more informed; shoppers visit a physical store or shop to browse and inspect merchandise on display first hand but… Read More
Whole Foods Market in the Hands of Amazon
When Amazon.com acquired the food retail chain Whole Foods Market in the summer of 2017 (for $13.2bn), it stirred bafflement mixed with speculations: What is happening here? To what aim does the giant e-commerce retailer need physical stores of a natural and organic food retail chain? Customers were worried out of concern about what Amazon… Read More
Into the Future of Unmanned Stores
Think of this: You enter a store and it is only you and the merchandise to choose from. There is no personnel in the store to talk to or to be served by. All operations are automated (robotic) by smart systems that watch, sense and “know” everything you do in the store. Thus you may not… Read More