adidas chairs

http://www.behance.net/gallery/ADIDAS-Library-chairsa-painting/375860

Industry Report: The Mobile Retail Experience

http://www.wds.co/enlighten/mobile_retail/mobile_retail_experience.pdf

Article: How Luxury Brands Can Use Mobile to Enhance the In-store Experience

… brands can ensure that relevant campaigns have several touch points, all working in conjunction to convey a singular message. Interactive in-store elements, like Diesel’s fitting room kiosk that allowed customers to try on clothes and immediately post pictures of themselves to Facebook, getting instant feedback from their friends that potentially influenced purchase, or MaxMara stores recent in-store contest surrounding their iPhone Cube application, all help to connect online with offline … It all comes down to structuring internal communications to ensure brand initiatives are executed on various levels and that teams, from the in-store staff to the corporate marketers, are involved in brand activations.

http://luxurysociety.com/articles/2011/01/how-luxury-brands-can-use-mobile-to-enhance-the-in-store-experience

Showcase of Beautiful (or Creative) E-Commerce Websites

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/25/showcase-of-beautiful-and-fresh-ecommerce-websites/

PSFK's Future of Retail Report

PSFK has released its forecast for the retail industry called PSFK presents Future of Retail. The free 80-page report features 10 key trends that will impact the retail sector in the next 3 to 5 years.

Key trends outlined are:

World As Retail Experience
Pre-view Shopping
Tablet Enabled Service
Selling The Ideal
Every Store As Flagship
Complementary Curation
Revolving Decors
Taking The store The Customer
Instant Show & Tell
Group Clout

You can request a free dowload here http://www.psfk.com/future-of-retail

thx wb

Sweat Shop store concept in Paris

http://www.sweatshopparis.com/

Like an internet cafe but for sewers and DIY enthusiasts. Set up with sewing machines, materials and with expert advisers, the Sweat Shop in Paris enables you to come along and pay by the day or hour and make stuff with others.

Brilliant, brilliant idea.

The People's Supermarket

http://www.peoplessupermarket.org/

An empty supermarket in central London has been reopened as a cooperative food store by two entrepreneurs seeking to bring quality food to deprived communities.

The People's Supermarket in Holborn will sell a mix of brand-named, artisan and organic products to cooperative members and the general public.

It will keep prices affordable by requiring its members to volunteer to keep staffing costs down.

More than 100 people have joined the People's Supermarket, raising £2,500 for the project. Members pay £25 per year and give up four hours a week in return for 10% discounts on stock. The shop stocks 2,000 different lines, with products sold chosen by members.

Darkroom -- a lovely new store in London I wish I could visit

http://www.darkroomlondon.com/

Shoppers are doing more research, and starting earlier.

This Google research shows that by the end of Aug 2009, almost half of Christmas shoppers had begun shopping and over a third had started purchasing. That's 4 months prior to the holidays. On the other end of the spectrum, just 5 days prior to Christmas, many had yet to begin shopping or purchasing.

This data reveals that the shopping cycle is longer than expected with a large portion of shoppers researching far in advance but remaining more comfortable waiting until the last minute to finish up.

And how much are they researching? on average of 16 days for top researched items Electronics and Home Appliances categories.

Muttropolis.com

http://www.muttropolis.com/products2.cfm/id/9275/name/Humunga-Stache-Durable-Dog-Toy

Great Blog: London Store Fronts

http://www.londonshopfronts.com

Nice 'tagline' on this example - BARGAINS GALORE IN THIS WALK AROUND STORE COME IN AND LOOK AROUND EVERY THINGS A POUND

Another great store sign

Sizing Profiles Help With Online Clothes Shopping

www.orgasizer.com

The best-laid plans to give clothing as a gift can be foiled in an instant for lack of the recipient's correct size. Aiming to banish such disappointments once and for all, Belgian OrgaSizer offers an online place to check the sizes and preferences of loved ones and friends.

Users of OrgaSizer begin by registering with their age, location and gender, among other information. They can then enter all their sizes and preferences for a variety of different types of clothing. Along the way, users can decide what information they'd like to share with others, and exactly whom they'd like to share it with. Nothing is ever publicly shared, OrgaSizer stresses. Users can also create wish lists and request reminders about important gift-giving dates. Ultimately, the idea is that shoppers hoping to purchase a gift can then check the site from wherever they happen to be to see what the recipient wants, and in what sizes or variations.

OrgaSizer is still smoothing out the edges on its site, which at present is available only in English. More languages are coming soon, along with advertising support, it's hoped. Clothing brands and retailers around the globe: one to sponsor, partner with or otherwise get involved in?

from http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-03-10.htm#orgasizer

Urban Outfitters Targets Brides

Urban Outfitters is planning to launch a wedding brand after posting a record profit in 2009.

U.O. officials said the company will open a new bridal business in time for Valentine’s Day 2011.

Chief Executive Officer Glen Senk says the Philadelphia-based company’s Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie stores frequently sell to brides and bridal parties, so a foray into the wedding industry makes sense. The new brand is yet to be named.

Company research indicates the average wedding costs about $45,000 and brides spend $4,500 on clothing and accessories.

eBay Goes Green

http://green.ebay.com/

eBay is launching a green shopping site and ad campaign. For the first 250,000 users who pledge to reuse on eBay, the company will preserve one acre of rainforest.

The mantra of the campaign's site says that purchasing used is as beneficial to the environment – and as helpful – as recycling or conservation. Director of eBays 'Green Team' Amy Skoczlas Cole, comments, “Most people think you have to make a product in a certain way with a certain set of ingredients for it to be green. What we’re saying is you don’t have to make this new product at all."

Environmental experts agree that reusing products does have benefits. Not entirely altruistic, eBay has suffered from shrinking market share and a push for ecologically minded shoppers is a strategic move.

Items qualified as green by eBay might be pre-owned or recylced in some manner. The ad campaign will feature a five-page insert appearing in 15 Hearts magazines starting in April – to coincide with Earth Day. It showcases sustainable products in room displays. A sample tag: “Choosing a previously owned espresso machine saves 90% of the CO2 needed to produce a new one. So you get the jolt you need without compromising mankind."

Gap Upside Down Store

http://design-fetish.blogspot.com/2010/03/gap-upside-down-store.html

"Shopping turned on its head" isn't just a meaningless tagline for GAP. They literally mean it. To promote their new loyalty program, Sprize, the GAP in Vancouver, BC turned its entire store upside-down. All of the mannequins, displays and even the sign were flipped, as well as some cars and a hotdog stand outside of the store.

Escape from New York Pizza

Thx -wb

87% online shoppers abandon their basket

Research conducted by Amaze, in conjunction with the University of Glasgow revealed that almost nine out of ten shoppers abandon their shopping basket while 75% of customers claimed they would return at a later date to complete the purchase, effectively using the basket as a wish list.

The research looks into the psychology of online shoppers and provide insights into why customers continue to abandon their shopping basket despite improvements in ecommerce site usability and introduction of behavioural targeting technology. It was found that the pleasure of browsing without the pain of buying is a real phenomenon that online retailers have to take into consideration when developing the e-commerce side of websites.

The report identifies the personalities of three types of online shopper - vague, cost conscious and window shoppers.

42% of shoppers were labelled as 'vague' because they seek more information from other people before completing the purchase and stated that they 'wanted to think about it' or 'consult with someone first'. Cost conscious shoppers accounted for 42% of customers and often cited 'high postage' costs or 'found the item cheaper elsewhere' as reasons why they didn't complete the sale.

The research found 16% of people surveyed could be labelled as window shoppers with no intention to purchase and claims that these customers should be discounted from online retailers' abandonment rates.

Insound music store commissions new artwork for past artists

Online indie rock superstore Insound has announced a new design project- an extension of last year’s Insound 20- which saw one artist design t-shirts and hoodies for 20 contemporary bands.

This year’s version is called the “Insound 10 Classic“- which pairs designer Mike Perry with 10 seminal punk, new-wave and indie rock artists (shown above) from 1977 to 1997. The new designs are featured on limited-edition t-shirts, posters and bags. The purpose of this project was to inject a fresh visual life into influential bands of the past- who have not had any new merchandise created for them in years- creating a narrative spanning different genres and decades.

London / NYC Boutique Swap

A lovely lovely idea - from today to September 13th a slice of London will descend on New York’s Lower East Side, followed in October by a reciprocal visit to the Newburgh Quarter featuring Big Apple’s best.
This 'exchange programme' involves 30 independent boutiques reflecting signature trends in the form of fashion, accessories and lifestyle elements set within exciting ‘popup’ shops.
All designers taking part in the project will be completely new to each city, bringing an element of welcome surprise emphasizing each other’s desirable design diversity.
The Newburgh Quarter and Lower East Side have, for several decades, been renowned for their individual styles – edgy, vibrant, fun and punchy, also in their own way, iconically metropolitan.
More detail see:
http://www.wishyouwerehereswap.com/

Japan Goes Post-Luxury

With sales of luxury goods declining in Japan, an article in the Financial Times argues that we might be witnessing an evolution, or at least permanent change, in consumer behavior there. In the article, Michiyo Nakamoto says that Japan became a mass-luxury market in the 80s and 90s where owning a Louis Vuitton bag or Hermes scarf was a middle-class rite of passage - but mow consumers have grown confident in mixing and matching luxury items with cheaper ones:

“This is not a blip. This is a long-term shift in the market,” said Brian Salsberg, the author of a McKinsey report on the Japanese luxury goods market, the world’s second largest… While luxury sales throughout the world are being hit by the recession, Mr Salsberg said that the implications of the latest slump for Japan were likely to be more serious and long-lasting.

… The growing confidence of shoppers in mixing and matching cheap and expensive products, coupled with competition from a growing array of luxury services such as spas and expensive restaurants, have robbed the brands of their hold on such spending.

Mr Salsberg said the brand makers, which created “a luxury bubble” with “a ridiculous number of store build-outs”, bore some blame for their predicament. He warned that they risked repeating the mistake in China.

China was the “growth story” for luxury but if makers flooded the market with stores as in Japan and people were able to buy such goods on every street corner, “the industry is going to destroy itself” there, he said.

http://www.psfk.com/2009/08/japan-goes-post-luxury.html

thx -wb

Top 10 Retail Trend List

Michael Baker (global retail and property analyst and consultant) sees these as the top 10 retail trends for the second half of '09. More info on http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/trends/top-10-global-retail-trends-20090805-e9a2.html?page=-1

1. Mobile marketing.
2. Mobile commerce.
3. Green products and performance stats.
4. Popup shops.
5. Corporate responsibility.
6. Customisation.
7. Advancing technology ahead of the point-of-sale.
8. Social media.
9. Using vacant shop windows as advertising signs.
10. Discounting and giveaways.

Gap Pop-Up Stores

The Gap has launched a pop-up store on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles to showcase its new premium denim collection.
The pop-up store, called the 1969 Jeans Shop, will carry the company's new 1969 Premium Jeans denim line, named to reference the year Gap was founded.
Company executives said they hope the jeans collection will help Gap break into the designer denim market, which has somewhat successfully curbed the effects of the recession.
1969 Jeans Shop will be open until Sept. 27.

New Microsoft stores with 'Guru Bars'

Microsoft will open new retail stores specifically designed to compete with Apple stores later this year in the US.

The stores will sell laptops in addition to Microsoft and third-party software, Zunes, and Xbox 360 games and consoles.

The first will be in shopping centres in Mission Viejo, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. The Shops at Mission Viejo is already home to an Apple store. The other location, Scottsdale Fashion Square, does not have a competing Apple shop.

News of the store strategy was leaked on Gizmodo who obtained a detailed Powerpoint presentation showing a fit out bearing a striking resemblance to the Apple Store look."Essentially, Microsoft is taking the best elements from the Apple Store, Sony Style and other "flagship" stores," Gizmodo said.

The Microsoft stores will feature a "Guru Bar" where customers can ask for technical advice. Apple Stores feature a service area known as the Genius Bar.

Apple, however, is not the only source of inspiration. The leaked Powerpoint document also says that the Microsoft stores will be available to host birthday parties - a service with which McDonalds has a long association.

For slides from the leaked ppt showing design concepts for the new stores see http://gizmodo.com/5322328/leak-inside-the-microsoft-store-with-wall+sized-screens-and-the-answers-bar/gallery/?skyline=true&s=x

Retail research paper

http://www.hubmagazine.com/archives/the_hub/2009/jul_aug/the_hub31_hoyt.pdf

Use Your Local

The UK's Royal Mail makes some 40 million unsuccessful first-time delivery attempts per year, causing no end of hassle for the consumers waiting to receive those packages. At the same time, Britain is losing about 52 of its pubs per week to recession-induced closures. Taken together, those two statistics underlie the creation of UseYourLocal, a new service backed by British brewer Scottish & Newcastle that facilitates package delivery to the local pub.

UseYourLocal aims to give consumers more reasons to visit their local pub, effectively helping to put the UK's 90,000 pubs and clubs back at the heart of the community. Participating pubs get their own website—including an easy way to email news and special offers to local customers—along with the ability to receive customers' package deliveries and a point-of-sale kit to help them register. Customers who sign up for the free service can then stay abreast of happenings in their favourite pubs as well as see who else has joined and send parcels to people at other registered outlets, with tracking along the way and email notification once their package has arrived. Perhaps best of all, of course, is that rather than waiting in line at the local postal sorting office to claim their undelivered packages, they can rediscover the charms of the local pub instead.

The company's website explains: "At UseYourLocal we truly believe that local pubs and clubs can be a real force for good in our local villages, towns and cities and hope that this is just the first in a series of great ideas aimed at finding creative solutions to help breathe life back into local communities."

More than 500 pubs across Britain have already signed up with UseYourLocal. www.useyourlocal.com

The Uniform Project

Until recently, most fashionistas wouldn’t be caught dead in the same frock every day for a whole year. But that’s exactly what style-setter Sheena Matheiken is doing with the Uniform Project, her effort to showcase a sustainable wardrobe model and raise money for charity.
Every day, Matheiken dons 1 of her 7 identical little black dresses, but she switches up the look with accessories like hats, tights and shoes. Daily images are posted on her website.
She takes donations — and gives $1 per outfit of her own money — for the Akanksha Foundation, which helps educate underprivileged children in India.
http://www.theuniformproject.com/

SuperTalk by SuperFuture

The wonderful SuperFuture has launched SuperTalk, a discussion board for global shopping experts. It's a great resource to figure out what's what in NYC, Tokyo and Sydney. www.superfuture.com/supertalk/

iPhone test new payment system

A project codenamed "Square" is the brand new iPhone-based payment processing system that's currently being alpha tested at the also brand new Self Edge NYC. In addition to keeping the process paperless, Square makes check-out clean and easy. The innovation is in a small, plastic card reader that fits in to the headphone jack of an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and transfers the credit card's swipe data to the app (pictured, right). After the employee enters the amount to charge, the customer confirms by scrawling their signature with their finger and then either one enters the customer's email address to send the receipt to. The payment is processed by Square for a small percentage plus a fixed fee; the funds are transferred directly to the store's bank account, cutting both time and complexity on the processing side. The customer's receipt includes a map showing the location of the transaction which is handy for those who record, sort and file such things.

While allowing anyone from a hot dog vendor to a bike messenger to process credit cards on-the-go, consumer to business transactions must be just the beginning.