"People trust going into stores more"
Superdrug | Walmart meta lols | Shein a light | Shopify's mad pandemic | Nike | Ikea
I really enjoyed this recent interview with ‘retail veteran' Peter Macnab, chief exec of Superdrug. It mostly focuses on the lead up to Christmas but it raises a good point - trust exists in a different way at physical retail. Perhaps rewrite that: trust exists in a different way physically, when all our senses are engaged and we’re in the presence of another human being.
This leads me on to… you guessed it: the meta verse. I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that it will not replace IRL. It’s impossible. Plus people don’t want it to replace IRL. Yes, the meta verse will improve, and it will likely make virtual meetings better… in time. But will we want to ‘live’ in it? I highly doubt it / we already do a fair bit (if we’re WFH). Especially as it appears that the same mistakes are set to be repeated by the companies that already have too great a say in our digital lives.
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Meta worst at retail?
Walmart have you covered.
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Ben Evans EOY preso: a must read
Brilliantly informative / thought provoking but for retail folks the must reads are slides 63 onwards. The Shein graphs on 72-74. Wow.
Shein continues to attract much attention. Good reads / listens at The Guardian and FT.
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“What Zoom was to corporate America during the early days of the pandemic, Shopify was to small-business owners, many of whom had never sold a single product online until it became the only way they might stay alive.” Good read on the rapid rise of Shopify from Bloomberg.
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‘Experiences’ I’m excited by
Love the look of this work for Nike from Amsterdam-based newcomer Modem. Would like to try it in person.
A new museum dedicated to electronic music will open later this year.
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The value of great staff, pt. 203
This open letter to an employee at IKEA in Brooklyn who helped a parent in need: my word.
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Space oddity
There’s a mannequin mountain in Lincolnshire and there’s nowt queer as folk.
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Final thought: what happens when there’s nothing to buy?
This is the question I’ve got on my mind at the moment. Retail doesn’t always = purchase of an item. We’re seeing less inventory in stores, greater ‘experiences’. If you work for a brand, a good place to begin a conversation may well be: what if we weren’t selling anything here? What would it be like and why would our customers want to spend time here?