Experiential E-Tail
Experiential retail refers to the shift in the industry away from purely transactional selling and toward the creation of memorable, meaningful moments. Experiential e-tail is just that, but online.
Classically, retail ‘experiences’ have been mainly the domain of brick and mortar stores. In response to online competition, retailers needed better ways to draw people in, generate enthusiasm, build trust, and deepen relationships. If you can buy anything online, why get off the couch to go into a store? Stores needed to offer more.
And so immersive stores boomed over the last five years, ranging from Samsung’s inventory-less 837 store to the laundromat-inspired Hermèsmatic pop-up.
Even digitally native brands got into the game, creating spaces like Glossier’s fried chicken cafe / beauty bar hybrid and Casper’s Dreamery, complete with bookable sleeping pods.
Today, however, the idea of napping in semi-public sleep pods or trialing shared lipstick samples at a crowded lunch bar seems laughably impractical. Instead, now is the moment for brands to make a concerted effort to bring these moments online.
DREAMING, EXPLORING, LOCATING
FITCH, a leading brand and retail consultancy, explores this shift by thinking about why we shop in the first place. They distill people’s mindsets into three states — Dreaming, Exploring or Locating. On their Medium blog, they share:
“While ‘Dreaming’, the consumer is the most open-minded and most open to being inspired. This could be someone who is killing time while they stay at home, browsing fitness trends, or just looking up new recipes. They may purchase, but only if they are inspired. An ‘Exploring’ shopper already has purchase intent in mind and wants to get the right amount of information to validate. The ‘Locating’ shopper has done their research — they’re ready to buy and go straight to the search bar to do so as easily as possible.”
AN ANTHROPOLOGIE STUDY
Historically, successful retailers have designed stores that can stimulate and serve all three states of mind. Conversely, most online stores are designed for locators, suffice for explorers, but neglect dreamers.
Consider Anthropologie. When I lived in NYC, walking into the Union Square Anthropologie store was passing through a portal to a dreamy, bohemian bazaar. The iconic scent, Volcano, was floral with a hint of tangerines. The eclectic playlist belonged to your coolest friend. The store layout was perfectly meandering, sprinkled with surprising vignettes and sculptural installations.
Sadly, Anthropologie’s online experience falls short. At the time of writing, their homepage greets you not with a dreamscape window installation, but with a banner ad touting sale prices. The navigation is strictly functional; click here for dresses, there for furniture.
Even their Hotel Magique collection — ‘inspired by the idea of what a boutique hotel might look like’ — leaves me longing for a transportive backstory, imaginative interior renderings, and in-situ product shots.
BEST OF THE DREAMERS
If beloved Anthropologie is missing a trick when it comes to capturing our imaginations online, then who is doing it well? What does it take to make a customer want to dwell, explore and engage?
1. Feature community
Tracksmith’s site is a great balance between the three missions. It serves those just looking to locate new shoes, but also inspires through features like the ‘No Days Off’ lookbook, which uses beautiful editorial writing and photography that follows two runners who tackle bitterly cold runs.
The brand is also supporting six projects from runners with creative ambitions via a Fellowship program, which ties into their running journal and podcast.
2. Share a ‘behind-the-scenes’ backstory
Selling perfume online is hard, but you can still play with the senses. For example, D.S. & Druga’s site uses an adaptive cursor with letters that fall off the page as you scroll. Every perfume is paired with a custom Spotify playlist and the maker’s ‘liner notes’ that evoke the location inspiration and detail the scent’s origin story.
Restoration Hardware also excels at translating the store experience into the digital world. Again, it’s easy to navigate to a specific item using the top navigation, but the site also gives inspiration-seekers plenty of behind-the-scenes videos with master designers, access to online source books, and virtual appointments to help ‘turn your dream into a reality.’
3. Build a world
In 2020, brands like Tatcha and Givenchy launched on Animal Crossing. Nike has sold virtual Air Jordans on Fortnite. And now forward-looking brands are experimenting with creating their own virtual worlds for storytelling, gaming, and shopping.
Aesop’s interactive nautical world debuted to launch their new candle collection. Gucci created an interactive ‘office party’ complete with augmented reality for their 2020 gift guide. Estee Lauder has created a ‘360 immersive experience’ in the form of an ‘ANRcade’ to earn ‘youth-generating’ power points.
As someone who loves experimental shops, I can’t wait for bricks and mortar stores to open again. But in the meantime, we’ve seen big leaps forward in experiential e-tail, and I’m excited to follow the brands who are reimagining their online presence.
Doing so will help them stay relevant today, and also serve them tomorrow. It might even usher in the dynamic, digital-physical blend that’s been promised for so long!
What sites and shops have captured your imagination lately? DM me on Instagram (@creamoftheshop) and/or email christina@creamoftheshop.com and let me know!
