design:retail - October 2017 - 8

editor's note

008

In Real Life
ALISON EMBREY MEDINA
EDITOR IN CHIEF/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

alison.medina@emeraldexpo.com
@dretaileditor

H E P H OTO
INSET in this

column was
taken at the
design:retail
Forum, which
staged last week (at time of
press) in Santa Rosa, Calif.,
right in the heart of Sonoma
Wine Country. (Editor's note:
stay tuned for our next issue,
which will showcase more
photography from this spectacular event.)
This particular photo captures the hillside view from
the cocktail reception at our
Portfolio Awards Dinner venue, at the scenic and inspiring
Chalk Hill Estate Winery in
Healdsburg. The photography you see here is stunning, but it does not come close to inciting the full
breadth of sensory awakening that evening had. An
Academy Award-level sunset lingering and then
slowly lowering gently behind the rolling hills
of vineyards. A glass of crisp Sauvignon Blanc in
your hand, which the server expertly poured with
gracious, knowing fingers. A slight breeze, with a
subtle scent of lavender in the air. It was a pictureperfect evening. I'll be honest, the photo you see
here, beautiful as it is, doesn't do the moment a lick
of justice. Closing my eyes, I am back on that hillside and it's just-magical.
In the moment I am writing this, I just received
an email titled "Are you ready for Black Friday?"
::::BUZZKILL::::
So much of retail today emphasizes a lowhanging-fruit mentality of trying to get customers
in stores. Flash sales, online coupons, clearance

OCTOBER 2017

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

blowouts. What we are missing is the magic. The inreal-life theater that retail is and has always been.
Many retailers are grappling with what to do
next, and landing on quick-fix technology installs
to try to reach the connected consumer in their
stores. The interesting thing about in-store technology is that it can actually drive disengagement with
the customer when it is unintuitive, isn't supporting the customer journey and in some way creates
a barrier between people and the purchase. I read
an interview recently with Jonathan Chippindale,
CEO of creative technology agency Holition, where
he takes a stab at retailers throwing iPads in-store
as a means of "seamless retail" or bridging the
offline/online gap. "When customers are walking
into a real store and looking straight at an iPad,
rather than the store, they aren't getting the full
experience," Chippindale says. "Analogously, it's a
bit like standing in front of Niagara Falls looking at
a postcard of Niagara Falls-making something 3-D
and multisensory into something far flatter."

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

In this issue, you'll find
a host of content aimed at
bringing those tangible moments to life in a retail store.
Eric Samuel Green's column
focuses on creating "selfies
and sharable moments" instore, offering customers a
capturable memory that can
be instantly shared (why not
let your customers be your
greatest marketing tools?).
In his column, Peter-Tolin
Baker talks about the legacies
of heritage and handcraftsmanship in retail, and how
authentic product and experience is changing the model
for retail today. Take a peek at
our look into IRL (or In Real
Life), which is General Growth Properties' new
concept store bringing digitally native brands
together to brick-and-mortar for the first time. And
with our two feature project stories this month,
Capital One and Indigo Books are both breaking the traditional "rules" of what a bank branch
or bookstore is supposed to be by reinventing
experience-driven, authentic retail for today's
high-expectation consumer.
We are starting to see a streamline of ecommerce brands bringing their brands to life by
opening brick-and-mortar shop in shops, pop-ups
and full-line retail stores. Turning what was once
vapor into something concrete and tangible. Bringing their once 2-D, beautiful pictures into magical,
lavender-scented and memorable moments.

Photo by OWEN KAHN

http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - October 2017