Trendsurfing: Hot retail trends (The Times)
By David Rowan
If you were a corporate client, we'd have to charge you tens of thousands of pounds to read this privileged information. As a Times Magazine reader, however, you are far more important - so here it is for free. Trendspotters, cool-hunters and professional futurists make a living identifying the hot new ideas that will eventually touch the rest of us. So we asked a few of them for half a dozen innovations in retail that are getting them excited.
Mass customisation: It's the retail buzzword that we kept hearing. To keep your customers loyal, treat them as individuals, even if you are a multinational brand. That means finding ways to let them customise your products at not much more than the standard price. It's not a new idea, but the web now makes it far easier to personalise your purchases - so Nike's website will let you design your own trainers, and Mars will let you write the slogan that appears on your M&Ms. And even if it costs a company money, it gets people talking. Not least here.
Experience stores: They might look like conventional shops, but they are not there simply to shift product. Instead, tech firms such as Samsung and Sony see their new "experience" stores as a way of selling the digital lifestyle. You might not yet be able to buy the latest Blu-ray DVD player or 50-inch TV - but by inviting you into a showroom to play with them before release, the manufacturers hope to fire your brand loyalty when you do take the plunge. Samsung even has a name for its 10,000-square-foot New York retail showroom: it's calling it an "un-store".
Ethical fashion: Do your clothes have a clear conscience? If not, you are about to have another reason to feel guilty. "Fair trade" fashion is moving from the green fringes to the British high street, with chains such as American Apparel trading on their progressive factory conditions, and Traid re-tailoring second-hand clothes as style statements. Watch out too for new organic, sweatshop-free labels hitting the department stores.
Customised shop aromas: It's known as "sensory branding", and its backers claim it drives sales. The marketing industry is sniffing a new opportunity in tailor-made artificial scents that put customers into the mood for spending. Second-hand car-dealers are using "new car" aromas, travel agents are infusing the smell of coconut and sun-tan lotion. Let's just hope you don't have a perfume allergy.
Cereal take-aways: We've had soup bars and juice joints - now prepare for the restaurant specialising entirely in breakfast cereals. A new American chain, the Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe, offers an all-day menu of 33 types of cereal and 34 toppings, which you can mix to your taste for around £2 a bowl. The servers even wear pyjamas. A dinner of Cheerios and Coco Pops might infuriate your dentist - but past experience suggests that those crazy American concepts do tend to end up over here.
Predictive technology: How can a McDonald's know when to throw extra burgers onto the grill? By using rooftop cameras that monitor traffic entering the car park. An American firm, HyperActive Technologies, has developed software that analyses these traffic patterns to predict demand, and bigger fast-food restaurants are testing it out to cut waiting times. Still, it can't yet predict whether you'll want ketchup on your fries, so we don't guarantee that this is the future.
(The Times, London, February 5 2005)
If you were a corporate client, we'd have to charge you tens of thousands of pounds to read this privileged information. As a Times Magazine reader, however, you are far more important - so here it is for free. Trendspotters, cool-hunters and professional futurists make a living identifying the hot new ideas that will eventually touch the rest of us. So we asked a few of them for half a dozen innovations in retail that are getting them excited.
Mass customisation: It's the retail buzzword that we kept hearing. To keep your customers loyal, treat them as individuals, even if you are a multinational brand. That means finding ways to let them customise your products at not much more than the standard price. It's not a new idea, but the web now makes it far easier to personalise your purchases - so Nike's website will let you design your own trainers, and Mars will let you write the slogan that appears on your M&Ms. And even if it costs a company money, it gets people talking. Not least here.
Experience stores: They might look like conventional shops, but they are not there simply to shift product. Instead, tech firms such as Samsung and Sony see their new "experience" stores as a way of selling the digital lifestyle. You might not yet be able to buy the latest Blu-ray DVD player or 50-inch TV - but by inviting you into a showroom to play with them before release, the manufacturers hope to fire your brand loyalty when you do take the plunge. Samsung even has a name for its 10,000-square-foot New York retail showroom: it's calling it an "un-store".
Ethical fashion: Do your clothes have a clear conscience? If not, you are about to have another reason to feel guilty. "Fair trade" fashion is moving from the green fringes to the British high street, with chains such as American Apparel trading on their progressive factory conditions, and Traid re-tailoring second-hand clothes as style statements. Watch out too for new organic, sweatshop-free labels hitting the department stores.
Customised shop aromas: It's known as "sensory branding", and its backers claim it drives sales. The marketing industry is sniffing a new opportunity in tailor-made artificial scents that put customers into the mood for spending. Second-hand car-dealers are using "new car" aromas, travel agents are infusing the smell of coconut and sun-tan lotion. Let's just hope you don't have a perfume allergy.
Cereal take-aways: We've had soup bars and juice joints - now prepare for the restaurant specialising entirely in breakfast cereals. A new American chain, the Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe, offers an all-day menu of 33 types of cereal and 34 toppings, which you can mix to your taste for around £2 a bowl. The servers even wear pyjamas. A dinner of Cheerios and Coco Pops might infuriate your dentist - but past experience suggests that those crazy American concepts do tend to end up over here.
Predictive technology: How can a McDonald's know when to throw extra burgers onto the grill? By using rooftop cameras that monitor traffic entering the car park. An American firm, HyperActive Technologies, has developed software that analyses these traffic patterns to predict demand, and bigger fast-food restaurants are testing it out to cut waiting times. Still, it can't yet predict whether you'll want ketchup on your fries, so we don't guarantee that this is the future.
(The Times, London, February 5 2005)
posted by David Rowan at Saturday, February 05, 2005
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