Current Article from Marketing at Retail

Our latest article from Marketing at Retail is available and I posted a copy here. I had fun with this one, since it let me walk around Soho and go shopping! I've included a brief excerpt here and you can click on the link below to download the full pdf.

And give us a holler if you'd like to experience one of our famous walking tours first hand. You'd be surprised at the insight you can gain out on the streets, visiting large and small retailers and seeing what's really happening in the real world.

In many retailers today you'll have a hard time finding staff that can tell you where things are. But recently I've been visiting stores in our SoHo neighborhood where the employees can not only tell you where things are, but they can also tell you where they came from, how they were made. and anything else you could think to ask. Is this the new face of retail?

For years retail pundits have discussed the impact of online shopping on the physical retail space. And while many have debated the "will we shop online or in-store" issue, what they've often missed is how the online shopping experience impacts the offline shopping experience, not how it eliminates it. One thing that it really changes is the information available to us as consumers. The result: there's nothing worse then going into a store and knowing more about the products than the people working there. The online shopping experience impacts the retail experience by tipping the balance of what we know as shoppers vs. the sophistication of the retail sales staff.

So, take a look at the experiences you're delivering right now and ask yourself this. 25 years from now, will one of your employees see something that brings back those memories and feel elated and excited knowing that they were part of it? Or will they be thinking I can't believe I used to do that. What a waste. We spend so much time trying to figure out how to create great experiences for our guests, but many times we don't even think about the employees. And if they're not feeling the elated and excited first, your guests never will!

Download mar06.pdf

Link: Experience Manifesto: WDW Electric Light Parade.

Comments

[Galen]

"The online shopping experience impacts the retail experience by tipping the balance of what we know as shoppers vs. http://www.divx-converter.net the sophistication of the retail sales staff."