Gavin Silsby, Planning Director at Haygarth, shares how retailers can offer environments that reflect the motivations of today’s bricks & mortar shoppers. 

It’s easy to get carried away when discussing the influence of online retail. After all, less than 20% of all retail sales come from digital channels and of those, nearly a fifth come through one retailer. Despite what you hear, physical retail, bricks and mortar is still the major player, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t heed the lessons learnt in ecommerce in our physical stores, far from it. Here at Haygarth we believe we need to in fact widen our horizons and take learnings from throughout the digital spectrum, leveraging those behaviours that now inspire all areas of our lives to provide a retail experience that perfectly aligns with today’s customer motivations.

For most of us, our world is digitally-led. We use technology to facilitate, communicate and entertain, seamlessly navigating between the physical and digital worlds without thinking. From instant gratification to curated and personal, the digital world sets our expectations. It inspires and defines our hopes and dreams, and provides feedback as to how well we are living up to these ideals. This is a world where everything has a value to be weighed up against our own desires. A world where everything is immediate and accessible. A world where shopping is as much about realising ambitions as it is buying products.

Despite this, it can be tempting for traditional retailers to fixate on the frictionless purchase experience offered by the online fulfilment giants, focusing on the final few steps rather than the journey as a whole. But there is a reason we talk about shoppers rather than purchasers, and that’s because the act of buying encompasses far more than just the final transaction. Whilst the online world allows for instant and continuous movement between touchpoints and across spheres of influence – from blog to style guide to social group to retailer – bricks and mortar provides the opportunity to meet customer needs on a deeper and more tangible level in one self-contained environment. By focusing on the shopping journey – inspiration, relevance, participation – rather than the destination – purchase – physical retail spaces can add value on their own terms rather than trying to compete with the convenience of online.

By shifting focus from the transaction, retailers can offer environments that reflect the fundamental motivations of today’s shoppers. From Instagrammable installations to lifestyle classes and cultural curation, best-in-class bricks and mortar retailers are offering genuine customer value based on behaviours honed in the digital sphere. To ensure we are meeting customer needs across the path-to-purchase, Haygarth look to provide retail experiences to meet three core drivers:

• Revelation – Providing culturally relevant knowledge or expertise to increase brand equity and aid discovery of products
• Recommendation – Curating choice based on personal need, trends or popularity to assist selection and provide confidence to purchase
• Recognition – Delivering socially valuable moments to extend store or product experience into wider channels

This ambition to integrate pop culture and lifestyle trends with shopper behaviour and preferences, allows us to elevate retail stores to be far more than just warehouses full of goods. Instead we look to harness the natural emotion of the purchase journey, capturing and fuelling it by providing valuable moments which transcend merely choosing products. We believe that every aspect of the in-store experience, from display and communications, to engagement and staff, should align with our shopper’s motivations in order to facilitate moments of desire.

After all, no matter the extraordinary lengths that online retailers go to to reduce the time from purchase to fulfilment, they will never be able to match the feeling of physically holding an item in your hands, metaphorically and literally taking ownership of it, and walking from a store with the satisfied glow of the perfect purchase.

If you want Haygarth to help you, get in touch with Gavin Silsby at gavin.s@haygarth.co.uk

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Steve Berry, Managing Director at EMIRAT, explores how the promotional marketing industry can respond to the decline in brick & mortar retail and movement towards online shopping. 

First we learnt the high street is in crisis, now is seems shopping centres are under threat too.  In an article published in the Telegraph in January, it was reported that 30 million Brits (58%) will use smart devices to shop this year, an increase of 12 million (66%) compared to 2018.

It cited data from BRC Springboard showing footfall declined by 3.9% in December, despite shops offering huge discounts. The article then surmised that the popularity of smartphone shopping is driving this decline, particularly with the introduction of such facilities as Apple Pay and one click purchasing.

This is obviously bad news for jobs, as retailers will be forced to downsize their physical foot print, making way for more investment online.  It’s also not great news for shopping centre owners whom will be left with a growing number of empty units and an ever dropping rental income.

There is also the small issue of peripheral purchase. In-store, the tills are littered with goodies to tempt you as you wait in line to pay, but now retailers have the problem of trying to recreate the same circumstance online, so as not to miss out on this additional revenue. Amazon cleverly replicate this by showing you what other purchasers have bought in conjunction, or anything that is compatible with what you’re buying. For example, if you are buying a clothing top they show you bottoms. If it’s an electrical device they show you power adaptors and accessories.

Retailers will obviously have to adapt and in-store offers will become online offers. But is this bad news for the promotional marketing industry? In actual fact online purchasing lends itself more to promotions, with promotional services companies linking websites seamlessly to the online store. The shopper simply need click through from the online store or app to enter!

In the short term though, how to do we help our retail colleagues address this trend and increase footfall into shopping centres again? The simple answer is through promotions. Give people a reason to go, and more than that, a reason to purchase there and then. As opposed to using it as an opportunity to browse for what they will buy online later, probably at a slight discount!

EMIRAT is a promotional risk transfer company servicing the marketing and advertising industries worldwide. EMIRAT can enable you to deliver events and promotions that create impact and drive consumers to purchase without the financial risks that can jeopardise your bottom line.

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46 percent of UK shoppers will be getting involved in the spooky occasion, but this rises to 70 percent for those with children finds research by Savvy.

New research investigating UK household shoppers’ plans for Halloween has been launched today by leading retail and shopper marketing agency, Savvy. The findings, which reveal that 46 percent of UK shoppers are set to get involved in the occasion, predicts spending to reach £367m.

Speaking about the research Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy comments: “Halloween continues to be one of the fastest growing retail events, with sales expected to reach £367m this year. More people are celebrating Halloween than ever before, and they are spending more too – not just on sweets for trick-or-treaters, but increasingly on parties and decorations. Rising adult expenditure on food and drinks is a key driver of growth.”

Key research findings:

Who plans to get involved?

• 46 percent of all UK shoppers plan to get involved in Halloween celebrations this year.
• 70 percent of parents said that they were highly likely or somewhat likely to get involved in the event. 33 percent of non-parents said they would be joining in this year.
• 18-34 year olds will celebrate the event the most with 63 percent getting involved.

Of those engaging with the occasion, how are these Halloween shoppers planning to get involved?

• The most common way (with 78 percent) of joining in is buying sweets, chocolate and other treats.
• Decorating the house came in second place with 41 percent closely followed by purchasing fancy dress (40 percent).
• 34 percent are planning on buying party food and 31 percent are making drinks purchases.
• 19 percent plan on making a special themed tea or dinner for the family.
• Going out trick or treating is on the cards for 35 percent of shoppers.
• Making cakes or sweets is on the agenda for 30 percent.
• 20 percent will be attending an organised event whilst 17 percent will be hosting a party of their own.
• This year ten percent of shoppers will celebrate with colleagues at work.

Spending trends and market size (calculated by weighting shoppers’ reported spending intentions to all UK households, the research estimates the following):

• This year, the market size for Halloween is estimated to reach £367m
• The highest area of expenditure is expected to be on costumes and make up at £82m.

From the grocery retailer shoppers use most often, they’d like to see:

• A dedicated Halloween aisle tops the wish list (cited by 59 percent) followed by bargain trick or treat bags (51 percent).
• 49 percent want to see special products relating to the occasion and 35 percent of Halloween shoppers said they would like special event related discounts or coupons.
• Activities handed out instore for children to do at home is of interest to 32 percent of Halloween shoppers and activities instore such as free face painting appeals to 26 percent.
• Ideas for Halloween parties are on the wish list for 32 percent of Halloween shoppers.
• Themed dinner/tea meal deals for dinners are desired by 25 percent.

Where are shoppers looking for inspiration for things to do and buy for Halloween?

• Shopper expectations are highest for supermarkets – with 68 percent looking to them for inspiration.
• Google takes second place for inspiring shoppers (31 percent) and Facebook comes in joint third place with recommendations from friends, family and word of mouth with 29 percent apiece.
• Parents and non-parents are tending to look for inspiration in similar places, with the exception of parents using food magazines, websites and forums such as Mumsnet more frequently.
• 18-34 year olds are much more likely to find Halloween inspiration on social media or Google, whereas 55-74 year olds are more likely to use grocery retailers’ magazines and websites.

Where will shoppers head to for their goods?

• The research findings indicate that it’s very tight between the retailers this year. In the lead, is Asda with 52 percent of shoppers planning to visit the supermarket. Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all tie for second place with 49 percent and Morrisons trails into third place with 47 percent.

Lockhart concludes: “With more and more emphasis on make-up, costumes and decorations this year, shoppers have an insatiable appetite for inspiration. Retailer winners are likely to be those who can inspire shopper using digital and social channels and then effectively drive people to store to buy.”

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Revlon have appointed Jackanory to develop and implement engaging experiential activations to drive trial and purchase of Juicy Couture’s brand new fragrance pillar, OUI Juicy Couture. Tasked with bringing to life the OUI Juicy Couture concept centred around female empowerment and encouraging women to say “yes” to things they believe in, Jackanory have created an eye-catching and engaging sampling experience that will tour shopping centres nationwide.

The #PowerOfOui activity will be taking place in shopping centres nationwide from 24^th August to Sunday 9^th September.

In the centre of a boxing-ring style stand, is a punch ball where shoppers are encouraged to have a go at the ‘YES OUI CAN’ Power Punch game to experience the empowering and playful force of the new brand. Shoppers will be invited to beat the score with one punch and then encouraged to share their experience on Instagram using the hashtag #PowerOfOui for a chance to win OUI Juicy Couture merchandise.

Laura Byron, Brand Manager of Oui Juicy Couture said “We needed an activation that would truly resonate with our target market, leverage our positive brand statements and encourage trial and purchase consideration. We’re confident that Jackanory’s #PowerOfOui activation will do just that and help to generate strong word of mouth around the new fragrance.”

Jo Curtis, co-founder of Jackanory said: “We’re delighted to be working with Revlon to kick start the story of their new OUI Juicy Couture fragrance.  We love the playfully provocative and unstoppable nature of the brand and can’t wait to see the concept come to life through our shopping centre activations. By leveraging the positive OUI statements through our activity, we hope to drive trial and purchase of the fragrance, all the while underscoring the importance of female empowerment.”

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Haygarth have partnered with London Designer Outlet to launch their first ever promotion-led experiential activation: Check In To Win. The travel-themed activation offers any shopper who has spent £40 anywhere at LDO the chance to enter an on-site prize draw and be in with a chance to win an amazing £500 getaway voucher.

Shoppers are encouraged to bring their receipts to LDO’s very own bespoke airport departure lounge, where the Check In To Win flight attendants will give them a numbered boarding pass, making them eligible for that hour’s prize draw and also includes an exclusive offer from one of the onsite shops or restaurants. The winning boarding pass numbers are called over the PA system by our friendly energetic compares – provided by our friends at POD Staffing.

The activation also includes an interactive photo wall, which acts as a source of inspiration for the 85 lucky winners, showing them and other shoppers a selection of beautiful getaway destinations. It is supported via LDO’s social media channels, consumer PR, OOH and on-site media.

Check In To Win has been a huge success so far, with more than 400 entries during its opening weekend and continuous queues forming with hopeful shoppers.

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