Building Immersive Retail Experiences
Leveraging emerging technology to bridge the gap between
online and in-store
the way we see itRetail
A New Role for the Physical Store
We are all well aware that todayˉs consumers increasingly look to new technologies to manage their
daily lives. For example, in a Capgemini study of over 18,000 customers in 18 countries,1 more than 70
percent of the respondents stated that they used some form of emerging technology, such as mobile,
social media, or online, in their shopping journey. Of these respondents, 41 percent use these
channels heavily, and the segment of consumers who avoid technology when shopping is getting
smaller, from 13 percent in 2012 down to 11 percent in 2014. And this does not look to be slowing
anytime soon. In late 2015, the Adobe Digital Index found that mobile drove 45 percent of online
shopping visits, 25 percent of online sales and, for the frst time, mobile surpassed desktop shopping
visits.2
With fgures like these, some may think that the physical store is no longer relevant and that digital
is the only way customers want to interact. However, although e-commerce is growing rapidly and
is an essential channel, it represents just 7.5 percent of total retail sales.3 The Capgemini study also
found that the physical store is still the favored destination for shoppers, particularly in mature
markets. For transactions, 72 percent of respondents see the store as important or very important.
And yet, the role of the Internet as the preferred channel to inform retail decisions (compared to
smartphone apps, social media or in-store technologies) continues to be central, with 75 percent of
respondents saying it was important or very important to shopping research.
Moving in the other direction, we see e-commerce retailers recognizing the importance of the physical
store and beginning to invest in this channel. For example, both Amazon and Birchbox4 opened their
frst retail outlets in 2015. The Amazon store centers around e-Devices for consuming content, like the
Kindle Fire, along with a highly curated selection of physical books, each accompanied by customer
reviews and ratings from the online store. Birchboxˉs New York store, where walls are adorned with
Instagram pictures from subscription customers, includes features
not possible online, like a °Try Bar± where shoppers can sample
products, and a salon where they can enjoy hair, makeup and nail
services, all of which are booked on the website.
Clearly, the physical store remains an important channel, but in
todayˉs digitally-enabled world, we need to consider it in a
fundamentally different way, not as a distinct channel, or even as
part of a step in a journey, but as part of a continual experience
thatˉs heavily enhanced by the smart use of in-store technology.
And when done the right way, the results can be astounding. A
recent study5 showed that retailers that have
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