My name is Martin Newman. I’ve worked in and around the retail industry for over forty years and have had responsibility for direct sales and customer experience for a host of globally renowned brands. Today I assume the job title of consumer champion. My purpose is to create a better environment and experience for consumers, while learning from them and garnering their feedback and passing this on to retailers and brands so that they can do an even better job of serving customers in the first place. So, what I talk to in this whitepaper, is based upon a combination of my hands-on experience and that of Storeplay, a business that helps retailers to deliver far more engaging and empowering in-store experiences.
In today's retail landscape, businesses face a critical challenge: while they strive to captivate customers and drive conversions, a staggering 70% of potential buyers leave stores without making a purchase. This gap in conversion is not merely a matter of product availability or market fit; it's deeply rooted in a lack of engagement and inadequate customer empowerment within the store environment.
We’ve been talking about experiential retail for many years. Yet, when you look at the in-store experience across many established retailers today, in 2024, not much appears to have changed. In the main, consumers browse a store, queue at multiple touch points and at different stages in their journey, from waiting for a changing room to become free to waiting for a store assistant to provide advice on a product to queueing while they wait to pay for whatever they are procuring. While listening to a generic playlist of music that may in no way reflect their musical taste. This has been the retail experience for a century or more.
Yet, there are a multitude of solutions available that could deliver a very different experience for customers. and would engage them more effectively while allowing them to take more control over their own in-store shopping experience. From choosing when to come to the store at a specific appointment time, thus enabling them to build a more convenient experience around their availability to having their mood enhanced by a combination of a playlist that reflects the weather in the area as well as the demographic shopping there, while an array of well thought-through aromas permeate different sections of the store. These sensory experiences can truly elevate the in-store experience for customers.
In the highly competitive retail environment, creating a memorable and engaging customer experience is paramount. Customers seek experiences that resonate on a personal and emotional level; retail spaces that fail to evoke these connections often see higher walkout rates.
This is where sensory solutions come into play. Encompassing scent, music, in-store media, and queuing systems, they offer powerful tools for retailers to enhance the shopping experience, increase customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive sales.
This whitepaper explores the benefits of these sensory solutions for customers, retailers and their staff, providing insights into how they can be effectively implemented in retail settings.
Martin Newman,
The Customer First Group
