Wieden + Kennedy New York Respond To PSFK’s Future Of Retail Report

PSFK presentsFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gPSFK recently published an analysis of the Future of Retail. The 80-page report was created to explore this future from the perspective of brands, shoppers, retailers, and communities. It was also produced as stimulus for the creative community and we encourage brands, agencies, and individuals to respond with their thoughts about the Future of Retail.The following ideas are from Wieden+Kennedy New York. The agency has responded with three ideas; a piece of technology, a concept and an experience.Request a free copy of the complete report here:www.psfk.com/future-of-retailCONTACT FOR mORE INFORmATION Erik Hansonerik.hanson@wk.comwww.psfk.com1 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gCONCEPT 1SPACE BUILDERA mobile scAnner App thAt Allows users to creAte their own cAtAlogs And custom views As they shop. Throughout the Future of Retail report there were many examples of retailers trying to combine the tactility of the physical retail experience with the convenience and customization of digital. And there are a lot of different tools and technologies coming together to try to make this connection in different ways: RFID, GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometers, iPads, kiosks and shopping robots, just to name a few. It seems almost too obvious that a piece of technology that is already the backbone of almost every retailer’s inventory and sales systems could be the easiest solution. The lowly bar code, something that has been around for 50 years, is proving to be an exciting frontier for connecting people, products and content. But while apps like Stripey Lines and Sticky Bits are finding really interesting ways of letting consumers access and share content through a social network of random objects, there aren’t many retailers using this most basic of technologies as a platform for creating more engaging in-store shopping experiences. What if there were a way for shoppers to work around the clutter of shelves and the distractions of packaging and displays to able to see the products they are shopping for in contextual environments that they create?This concept is the Space Builder. With this app (designed with furniture and home décor retailers in mind), users could scan barcodes of products using their smart phone while they shop.www.wk.com2 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gEach scan would instantly display catalog photography and details of that product (360 degree QTVRs for the more ambitious retailer), but the scans would also be collected into a real-time personal catalog that could then be sent to large in-store kiosk displays (or an online gallery to view from your home PC). Items could then be arranged and matched by color, category, fabrics, designer, etc., and assembled into a 3D room model. Other product suggestions could be made to users based on the items they scanned or the rooms they create, and an in-store locator could direct the customer to the aisles that contain these complementary products. It combines the benefits of physically touching and trying with the customization and control of online shopping. www.wk.com3 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gCONCEPT 2SKU - THE SERENDIPITY STOREA store thAt sells A monthly collection of 10 mystery objects chosen by A guest curAtor. In a world of Instant Show and Tell (link) where retailers are encouraging people to publish their “likes,” post their purchase history and share their dressing room decisions with their Facebook friends, it’s easy to envision a near future in which retailers will be able to personalize just about everything to perfectly suit a shopper’s preferences. And while this kind of hyper-personalization could represent great value, it is also slowly killing serendipity – that thing that used to make shopping fun. So perhaps the biggest opportunity for a retailer of the future to differentiate will be to bring back some surprise. What if there were a store that believed so much in the serendipity of stuff that the very products it sells were kept a mystery? This concept is called SKU — a store dedicated to discovery that sells 10 mystery items each month, all selected by a guest curator. www.wk.com4 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gEach box could be sold for the same reasonably low price (perhaps $20). Curators could include musicians, actors, architects, designers, comedians – anybody with an interesting point of view, a respected opinion or a story to tell. It’s kind of like StumbleUpon for retail. The premise here, as inspired by Rob Walker’s Significant Objects project, is that the value of any object comes from more than simply the materials it’s made of… it can come from stories, points of view, celebrity associations, even the simple experience of this kind of purchase.One month Nick Cave might introduce you to a CD you’ve never heard, a brand of Vegemite™ that actually tastes good, an autographed copy of his script for The Proposition, or a pop-up book about international spacecraft. And the next month, Wes Anderson might introduce you to his favorite Japanese horror movie, or the world’s best bicycle pump. While technology will inevitably help us all become better buyers of the stuff we like, hopefully we’ll always have interesting ways to discover some stuff we never knew we liked in the first place. www.wk.com5 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gCONCEPT 3SQFT - A PERSONAL RETAIL SPACEA little piece of retAil in your home thAt Acts As A virtuAl stAge for merchAndise. There were a couple of really interesting overall themes in the Future of Retail report that led us to this concept. One was the portability of the retail experience — whether that’s portable fixtures within a space, hitting the road with a portable store, or the technology to create a retail experience virtually anywhere. The other was the emergence of new, unexpected ways the mobile phone is being used to close the sale. So we thought it would be interesting to see what you could create by breaking apart the conventional retail space into more portable pieces but keeping them connected through a mobile experience. SQFT is a 12-inch-by-12-inch stage that would allow consumers to turn a little corner of their home into one square foot of personal retail space.www.wk.com6 PSFK presentsWieden+Kennedy new YorkFUTURE OF RETAILCo n s u lti n gThe SQFT surface would feature an augmented-reality glyph so that when it was viewed through a mobile phone or webcam, a user would see the item currently for sale hovering above the stage. Every day one item would appear for sale (similar to woot.com), exclusively available through SQFT. You could either click to buy, or just enjoy the virtual view. The concept would work particularly well for retailers of unique collectables like Kid Robot, which could feature limited-edition Dunnies and other vinyl toys where one-of-a-kind is the name of the game. Or a collection of retailers could “share the stage” to cross-promote a curated collection of objects. SQFT forces the blurring of the lines between physical objects and digital experiences — something the retail industry in particular is very interested in helping to pioneer. And even if you never decide to buy something, it still makes one hell of a conversation piece. www.wk.com7