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With 34 shopping centers encompassing over 6,400 retail spaces in the US/UK, Westfield Corporation knows a thing or two about shopping. To stay on trend with consumer needs, they conducted a survey at the end of last year to uncover directions and inclinations within the ever-expanding retail world. The report that followed, based on feedback from over 13,000 shoppers and experts, conveys the need for a shift in shopping innovation, which transcends the ideas of location, provisions and advertising. With technology and the shared economy becoming more and more pertinent in our lives, consumers are showing increased interest in these concepts being introduced into their shopping experience.
The rising validity of the shared economy has shown that consumers are on board with services that are communal, convenient and cost-effective. The success of startups like Rent the Runway, a retail chain where customers can rent designer clothing for convenient, one-time usage, also proves that the shared economy can have a presence on clothing racks. The report showed that shoppers, New Yorkers most of all, are interested in the idea of renting products rather than committing to buying them.
Technology is becoming another popular theme in retail. Since it has become an integral part of our lives over the past few years, it would only makes sense that it would eventually find its way into our shopping habits. Another reported trend was an interest in “Enhanced Reality Retail” or retail that incorporates reality-bending technologies like virtual reality and headsets. Over 42% of people in the US expressed interest in using virtual reality to preview what a product would be like in their home.
Another intriguing trend in shopping “Classroom Retail” or the idea that stores can also serve as spaces to teach customers new things. Since brands build their identity by selling a lifestyle in which their products can be supplemented, it makes sense that consumers would want to take the idea a step further and learn other skills to achieve such a lifestyle. Nearly one third of shoppers expressed interested in attending a lifestyle lesson at their favorite store. Shoppers also expressed an interest in taking fitness/music classes from brands that promote such activities accordingly.
So what do these trends mean for the future of shopping? It seems that retail chains will have to implement multi-sensory elements in order to compete with consumer cravings. Downtown Manhattan has seen a surge in shopping resources over the past few years like the blossoming Brookfield Place, Westfield World Trade Center, which is projected to open later this year and the prospective Saks Fifth Avenue downtown location.
Our fall Coverage of Brookfield Place The Changing Face of Luxury Retail highlighted the shopping center’s incorporation of delicious dining among their high end outlets. This, along with various programing, aiming to draw crowds from friend groups to families, indicates that Brookfield is already testing the multi sensory waters. As Westfield’s opening draws closer, one can’t help but wonder if they will be incorporating some of the innovative concepts unearthed in their report in order to compete with their downtown and uptown counterparts. These are not the only downtown landmarks that are projected to push the envelope. The South Street Seaport is incorporating new and established names in retail innovation in the wake of its dynamic renewal.
Downtown Magazine’s CEO and publisher Grace A. Capobianco has always recognized Lower Manhattan’s potential as an immense shopping Mecca. “
“This community has been through so much, but still managed to rise above anyone’s expectations; expectations that we, however, always knew from the beginning,” she states, “We are also extremely excited to experience first hand the changing face of retail downtown, as we bring you the changing face of what a lifestyle magazine brings to its readers.”
If the trends are any indication of what is to come, we may be seeing a lot of change in our favorite stores and shopping centers, ranging from classes to visual reality. Downtown’s many retail spaces seem to be leading the pack on shopping innovation and uptown’s long-established enterprises may find themselves behind on the times if they don’t heed the trends and begin introducing new-age ideas.
-by Johanna Silver