Digital disruption has fundamentally changed the shopping journey, says Erika Sirimanne, head of home and garden at global market research provider, Euromonitor International.
During her keynote presentation at the 2019 International Home + Housewares Show earlier this month in Chicago, she provided homewares retailers and suppliers with practical insights to tackle the big challenges in adapting to connected consumers and connected commerce.
Describing the dramatically different landscape, Euromonitor International has dubbed it ‘Shopping Reinvented’ with hyperconnectivity now being the new normal.
While less than 10 per cent of consumers globally own a smart home device, Sirimanne says that the next stage in the evolution of hyperconnectivity will be smart homes.
“Companies that can help alleviate some of consumers’ concerns about smart home devices (including privacy, connectivity and price) can reap huge dividends.
“Functionality is key here. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? A major growth area in the smart home arena is passive consumption or the idea of products with artificial intelligence anticipating a consumer’s needs,” she adds.
Key features of Shopping Reinvented include:
• Experiential shopping―“this is all about making the pre-purchase experience less transactional,” says Sirimanne, citing Macy’s new mixed reality experience in their furniture departments.
• Instant gratification―consumers now want to be engaged before they buy. Sirimanne shared the example of the Zwilling website which engages people in a holistic cooking lifestyle instead of simply having a product focus.
• Personalisation―”companies are putting more emphasis on anticipating consumers’ needs through big data,” she says.
• Blended store formats―these reinforce the importance of physical stores but with new ways to buy. Examples include pop-up stores and showroom formats such as the one Alibaba uses in their Home Times stores.
• Value for money―some consumers may equate value with price, while others may view value as quality. Know how your target consumers see it, Sirimanne says.
• Seamless check-out―consumers don’t want to be slowed down in physical stores by long lines and cumbersome payment processes.
• Last mile reimagined―new options are developing every day to deliver products anywhere, anytime.
