Navigating the post-corona retail landscape

Navigating retail in the midst of a global pandemic is no easy feat, but it’s paramount that brands look to their consumers’ core needs in a post-corona landscape. A new trend analysis by The Future Laboratory in collaboration with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield shows that delivering exceptional experiences will be a crucial way to engage brand consumers.

Delving into the analysis, it shows a number of new trends that fit into the emerging Experience Economy, such as the fusion of physical and digital, or in other words, “The Phygital”. By crafting a mix of digital and physical contact moments with the consumer, brands will be able to respond to consumer behaviour in real time.

It has become increasingly important that physical stores differentiate smartly from online retail – with a previously published How we Shop Report showing that 57% of Dutch consumers think that the offer in the store should be different than online.

After the first lockdowns from the corona era, stores once again have to prove their added value to the consumer. This means that they cannot simply continue to focus on merely selling products in the same way, explains Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory.

Our research shows that brands can make much more of a difference by selling their most beautiful products in the store. Consumers benefit from this because they can choose better and retailers can get a fair price for their products.

This research shows that the retail sector needs to think creatively about their approach to physical touchpoints in the near future. Experience is an important factor for loyalty and affinity with brands, with research revealing that over a third of Dutch consumers want more creative experiences when they visit a store.

Westfield Mall of the Netherlands was developed with experience as one of the central principles, says Bart van Twillert, Country Manager at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

This meant that from the start we wanted to offer “more” than just shops. With the development of Fresh!, where you can eat deliciously fresh, or The Gallery, where you can find the latest shopping trends, we expect to actually be able to offer people an experience.

Another emerging trend is the increasing popularity of the “Drive-in Experience”, which means that consumers can still enjoy events, concerts, exhibitions and even retail from their own safe environment.

People are now more than ever looking for an escape from their daily lives in which they spend more time at home than before, says Sanderson.

This offers an enormous opportunity for retailers to shape the character of their store into an environment where people can let go of everyday life for a while.

View The Future Series webinar series at mallofthenetherlands.com/thefutureseries/