The Wall: A next generation retail experience

jennifer March 13th, 2009

After completing our research that helped us identify insights and painpoints with current retail experiences, we believe that in-store and online shopping experiences will become much more integrated – particularly for shopping experiences that involve a great deal of research (i.e., shopping for snowboard/sporting equipment, cars, etc.). We also consider a variety of the latest retail projections and trends including:

• Online sales are growing faster than the overall retail market at 17-24 percent year over year (according to Shop.org and Forrester research) and even though retail sales are expected to drop, the drop is expected to affect online retail much less than traditional retail.
• As the U.S. economy continues to suffer, consumers are beginning to do much more research on both small and big price tag purchases.
• According to Jupiter Research, 77 percent of all online shoppers employ user-generated product reviews and ratings and 25 percent consult social and community sites to conduct research on potential purchases.

With this in mind, we developed a solution that illustrates what the future holds for retailers who are attempting to bridge the gap between online and in-store purchases and why retailers can find significant ROI by implementing a different approach to in-store purchases.

Introducing: The Wall

The Wall is an interactive life-sized display that brings online capabilities into the store and onto products. Customers can place physical products against The Wall display and interact with related content aggregated from multiple online sources such as product info, related info, opinions, analytics, demonstrations and media.

The Wall allows consumers to:

• find products available in-store and online
• match them with other products
• bring in opinions of friends, community and experts to bear on their decision
• find collections of products to match a price range
• interact with the display with their mobile phone
• engage in the sport and culture – in the store

The Wall allows retailers to:

• increase user loyalty and stickiness between online and offline channels
• offer a unique shopping experience
• give their sales force a boost
• increase up-sell and cross-sell of merchandise
• effectively leverage the inevitable force of social media in shopping
• offer more than their physical inventory in the store

For more information on our research and envisioning phases, you can read up on our last few entries. If you have any comments or feedback, let us know. There’s been a lot of lessons learned from the project and we’re anxious to hear your thoughts too.

Time for eCommerce Window Dressing Highlighting Brand Value (on practicalecommerce.com)
Shopping User Experiences (on practicalecommerce.com)
Snowboard Connection consumer highlights reel
Snowbird concepting & wireframing
How to film customer insights camera operator

For more information on this project, please send us an email. We would love to hear your thoughts!

Entry Filed under: design