Connect with us

Blogs & Perspectives

The Next Omni

Understanding the shift from omnichannel retail to amalgamated shopping patterns

mm

Published

on

I attended an event last week sponsored by the Retail Design Institutes’ (RDI) New York chapter and hosted by West Elm. It featured a tour of the retailer’s new corporate design center, as well as its new store at the Empire Stores building in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood.

Nancy Tsuei, svp of merchandising kicked off the event with a talk about the strategy behind West Elm’s developing product offering: a mantra of live/work/pay to coalesce with every facet of consumers’ lives. The headquarters portion of the tour gave ample time to admire the “work” aspect of West Elm’s offering. Using its new workspace as a lab, each zone is styled with a different model of workstation and complementary furnishings from its collection. Moving into the store (my favorite part), the product was obviously more “live” and ”play”.

During her talk, Tsuei spoke about the empowerment of individual stores to shape their merchandise buys based on local market tastes. I thought this was very smart, something akin to Macy’s “My Macy’s” program. But I sensed something else was new as she described their product strategy and shared their plans for opening locally focused boutique West Elm Hotels. We’ve already seen Armani and Fendi, high-end luxury brands, lead with apparel, then branch into furnishings and finally hotels. I say finally, but who knows what may be next. Certainly Baccarat has found success extending from their opulent crystal appointments into jewelry, and also into hotels. But I can’t recall a brand that is as approachable as West Elm stretching itself like they’re currently doing. While Restoration Hardware and Shinola have declared they will be opening hotels as well, the price points of both those brands don’t make them as accessible to the common consumer as it feels West Elm is.

Tsuei brought up the notion of omnichannel, eschewing it as a thing of the past, and talked about a more holistic approach, such as that of embedding West Elm into all aspects of consumers’ lives. This rejection of the omnichannel concept has become a common conversation of late, calling for the manifestation of a new vision of retail. It seems that West Elm is uniquely positioned to align with all three facets of live/work/play, and perhaps best positioned to present that new format, which I am dubbing “amalgamated shopping patterns.”

So, while I fully comprehend the strategic advantage of aligning the retailer’s product offering with the 360-degree needs of consumers, I wonder how this will ultimately evolve the omnichannel conundrum on a broad level. The protest against the use of omnichannel by many is that retailers must stop viewing online and in store as two separate business models, and must strive to create a symbiotic experience. The sheer use of the very label is counter to the concept it seeks to describe and belies the conundrum facing the industry.  Retailers continue to struggle with this: how to balance websites with store experiences, ascertain appropriate store sizes, tailoring in-store product assortments for local audiences, curation-based on brand points-of-view, and most of all, the eternal conflict between merchandise assortment and capacity, versus non-monetized brand experiences in store. I don’t see how the conversation can be over, as much as we may be sick of hearing about it, as many retailers still have much work to do to solve the problem.

Believe it or not, many retailers have not yet achieved omnichannel status – perhaps in concept, but not in actual practice. The omnichannel experience still is not pervasively seamless and not fully integrated into retailers’ businesses. Improved? Yes. Resolved? No.

Advertisement

I believe West Elm has the ability to move the dial on new avenues for shopping. We will likely watch West Elm use its hotels as its new store typology, where all items within the West Elm hotels would be available for purchase. I can see this approach being very successful, where someone could stay in a room appointed with the furnishings they are interested in, a true “test drive” for the furniture. (It does one better than sleeping in an IKEA.)  It would also present opportunities for the upsell, as the decorative appointments round out the decor, as well as associations with local artisans to augment the assortment.

This would be a natural evolution of trends observed, such as Oscar de la Renta designing the toiletries for Peninsula Hotels; or Neiman Marcus leveraging proximity with the St. Regis Bal Harbour to extend their personal shopping resources by providing “Neiman Marcus Closet” there. Some other personal favorite examples include the Vilebrquin swimwear vending machine located poolside at The Standard in Miami and the poolside cabanas at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui (I guess with the onset of winter, my thoughts are fast- forwarding to next summer). The difference between these examples and what I prognosticate for West Elm, is the advantage that West Elm holds in their its ability to bring this kind of experience to fruition in a significant way without relying on a new brand alliance.

So what does this all have to do with what I’m calling “amalgamated shopping patterns”? I believe the true evolution of omnichannel is such that when the shopper is shopping, and they don’t know they’re shopping. Even the utilization of Pinterest and Facebook for assisted sales is still shopping with intent. I see this unfolding in real time, where the consumer engages in an branded experience that is wholly disconnected from a retail environment, where that experience aligns with either their current lifestyle or their lifestyle aspirations, and the consumer then incorporates some or all of the experience to enhance their lifestyle. It’s no longer about owning a particular product, but how these products impact and/or improve our daily lives. The next generation of shopping feels like it must be simple, and merely be the consumer extending their lifestyle to embrace the retailers’ product, and not the other way around.

Kathleen Jordan, AIA, CID, LEED AP, is a principal in Gensler’s New York office, and a leader of its retail practice with over 24 years of experience across the United States and internationally. Jordan has led a broad range of retail design projects as both an outside consultant and as an in-house designer. She has led projects from merchandising and design development all the way through construction documentation and administration, and many of her projects have earned national and international design awards. Contact her at kathleen_jordan@gensler.com.

Advertisement

SPONSORED HEADLINE

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

In-store marketing and design trends to watch in 2024 (+how to execute them!). Learn More.

Promoted Headlines

Advertisement
Advertisement

Subscribe

Advertisement

Facebook

Most Popular