If you shop with your smartphone, maybe use it to compare products and prices in-store or do some research from home on the best price and where a product you want is in stock, before stepping foot into the store, then you are not alone.
The smartphone has become our most valued shopping tool. Who knew that in a single decade, a hand-held phone would become a significant factor in changing our traditional shopping habits and transforming our shopping patterns? The smartphone, with its Internet connectivity, was simply a turning point. Next, along came companies like Amazon, with their ever-evolving e-commerce extravaganza, offering each of us our very own, self-directed shopping engagement with global reach, 24/7.
What Amazon, a technology company, has done to change our shopping expectations, habits, and patterns is astounding. And, as shoppers, we love it, because we get what we want when we want it. While this collision of technology and online retail has been developing since the 1990s, new trends in retailing were also emerging. Forward-thinking retailers from small, independent business owners to large companies, were choosing to sell their products and services in more engaging ways. Some of these new trends in retailing were food trucks, pop-up stores, and interactive kiosks. These are still popular today, and no longer trends; they are established types of Disruptive Retail that are mainstays in commerce. And, they are emerging in the metaverse, too.
In the metaverse, a Virtual Store lets customers navigate a digital version of the physical store to experience the brand and products to offer a more intimate online shopping experience. Within the Virtual Store, the customer can explore AR experiences, such as virtual lipstick and makeup try-ons or virtual fitting rooms to try on clothes. The customer can participate in a video chat with a store team member to ask a question or have a personal shopping experience.
These elements of a Virtual Store resonate with today’s shoppers because they offer different levels of interactive engagement and are self-directed, encouraging them to play and have fun with products.
Disruptive Retail is a design solution that bridges online-to-offline retailing and the metaverse. It works to challenge the once-held belief that retail can only operate with a long-term lease in a brick-and-mortar setting. Instead, Disruptive Retail embraces an ever-growing number of creative retail solutions that work nicely for today’s consumers. These consumers move quite easily between offline, online, and virtual retail and are looking for a more personalized and experiential component to their everyday physical, digital, and virtual shopping experiences.
Until you started reading this article, most likely you had not heard the term Disruptive Retail. But there is a good chance that you have already experienced it. From the self-checkout kiosks at BurgerFi, to temporary Halloween Pop Up Stores that appear each Fall, to Family Night food truck rallies, most likely you have already experienced the ease of use, quick response, and entertaining qualities that a Disruptive Retail solution offers.
At Gustie Creative, we expertly guide our clients to grow their businesses with unique Disruptive Retail solutions that creatively promote their brand, achieve marketing objectives, allow for short-term offline commitments, directly engage with customers or clients, and gain measurable results in real time.
In our ever-growing, direct-to-consumer world, new solutions are constantly emerging. Impassioned retailers are finding innovative ways to delight and engage shoppers. These retailers know that Disruptive Retail is a smart way to adapt to the ever-changing retail landscape. Learn more about Disruptive Retail at GustieCreative.com and explore popular Disruptive Retail solutions at CreateDisruptiveRetail.com.
At Gustie, we’ve been designing, researching, and executing Disruptive Retail solutions for over a decade. We are evangelists for Disruptive Retail and know how it works. Feel free to contact me at karen@gustiecreative.com to schedule a 30-minute consultation.
GUSTIE CREATIVE LLC
5030 Champion Boulevard G11-241
Boca Raton, FL 33496
561-409-5135
gustiecreative.com