The Graff Team is back from another great 2 days at STORE! (#store2019). As always, Kevin rocked the main stage as the conference emcee and Kim and I held down the fort at the Graff Retail booth with the help from our booth partners Endo Networks; having many great conversations with all the great retailers in attendance.
Every year there is always a clear message that I take away from STORE. After attending for at least the last ten years, I have started to search for the underlying ‘theme’ right from day one. Kim and I both agreed that this year it was all about EXPERIENCE.
I know. In retail, we have been talking about the customer in-store experience for a number of years, but this year it went beyond just the basics of what it takes to make for a great in-store shopping experience for your customers. If you are still struggling with the basics of getting your staff to greet customers, know your products better than your customers know them, and basically just serve your customers consistently, this year’s message of EXPERIENCE is over your head and you are falling behind. That message was more than clear!
The bar has been raised much, much higher. The idea of offering experiences to your customers is more interactive, a much higher level of engagement, memorable and entertaining and certainly involving technology innovation that we just haven’t seen before. Even the exhibitors were embracing the idea of offering experiences in their booths that we’ve never seen before! Kim and I went on a mission to explore some of these experiences and meet some great retail solution providers along the way!
We didn’t make it to the oxygen bar and chickened out of experiencing the technology at the Passen booth. They offered a digital platform that measures you and then finds you clothes at retailers that are sure to fit you to a ‘T’! Check them out…it’s up and coming and no doubt you’ll start to see this experience offered in shopping malls across the country soon!
We did find time for a few other ‘experiences’ though…
No doubt, retail is an exciting industry to be a part of and just when you think nothing much has changed in retail, you quickly realize that so much advancement has happened even since STORE last year! The EXPERIENCE is ever evolving. The bar is always being raised. There is always a new reality of retail! Thank you to the fantastic team at Retail Council of Canada for putting on a stellar event.
