Retail and the home: an evolving relationship
What is happening in terms of trends in contemporary retail and visual merchandising?
Homi Milano explored this question in a webinar featuring some very interesting content. On February 16, a number of industry experts, moderated by Marina Bassi, retail editor-in-chief of GDO Week and Mark Up magazines, shared their insights and experience, which we present in this article.
Claudia Baldi, architect and lecturer at the School of Design at the Politecnico di Milano, emphasized that we are now in a phase of necessary and irreversible change, which the pandemic has helped to accelerate significantly.
Words such as "omnichannel" and "phygital" are now entering the field, in a fluid fusion between the real and the virtual and in a continuous flow of relationships and experiences, which pass through the large number of devices that each of us has at our disposal. The customer is no longer a "spectator" to whom pre-packaged experiences are administered, but a director of their own experience, capable of shaping it to their liking, taking on a central role in the shopping experience.
Social media, when used consciously and in synergy with one's business, brings added value and can increasingly be considered "a beautiful corner shop window located on the world's main avenue on a sunny Saturday afternoon": everyone sees it! As a showcase to the world, therefore, it offers the opportunity to amplify the story of each brand and product, creating significant potential.
So what is the role of the physical store?
Physical space must continue to carve out its own role, but following the new rules of the game, becoming a place where all experiences are transformed into relationships. While online we find more "product" and less "emotion," in physical space it is the opposite: less "product," more "emotion," more relationship, to be developed also through events, moments of encounter, and activities. The purchasing process now also requires the definition of a story to communicate to the customer, who is not simply buying a product, but what the product can do for them.
"Be understandable to be purchasable"
This is where visual merchandising comes into play, as explained by Emanuela Franzese, Visual Merchandising & Visual Design Consultant, to better define the physical and emotional relationships of a customer within a space. In an increasingly complex world, clear storytelling and scenarios that contain the space of the experience should be created.
The focus of visual merchandising is to attract consumers, encourage them to buy, and possibly make them return. It is also essential to work on lighting, colors, and digitization, but with consistency: the physical store must reflect its digital identity conveyed through social media.
Detail is the winning weapon
Display, focal points, and sensations are therefore the keywords for organizing visuals. Details in the display space are memorable and remain in the customer's mind even after some time has passed. So, creativity and themed corners are welcome, where the content and context can create an emotional and narrative scenario.
For everyone, the main theme is to be attractive and distinctive, to differentiate themselves not only from direct competitors, but also from online, a friend-enemy, but one that certainly requires its own logic and structures.
- For those interested in watching the entire webinar: www.homimilano.com
