Despite the e-commerce boom, especially during recent lockdown, the physical store still play a central role in retail and remains a key opportunity for customers purchasing, provided that it manages to evolve and respond to new market needs.
Blog
18/06/2020
SOTF
The future of retailing flags in enchanting Forte dei Marmi, thanks to Temera and RFID.
Post-Covid shopping: is Retail focusing on Omnichannel approach.
18/06/2020
Post-coronavirus shopping has to deal with new needs, which have shifted consumer expectations indefinitely.
Today no channel can exclude the other. Online sales along with retail stores and all touchpoint with the user, must coexist in a fluid way, according to multichannel logic. The goal is to satisfy an increasingly evolved consumer.
Digital represents a crucial ally to the ever evolving shopping experiences and will not allow shops to limit themselves to the simple role of display. Indeed, the consolidation of multichannel as a method of choice and purchase finds its core in the physical store.
Post-coronavirus shopping experience: S.O.T.F. case study
If in some case the shopping experience has remained unchanged, others have already embraced innovation, offering a futuristic in-store experience. Among the pioneers of shopping 4.0, an all-Italian example is S.O.T.F. which is precisely the acronym for Store Of The Future. The concept originated in 2016 with the opening of the first visionary store in Via De Tornabuoni in Florence and today it has extended its presence to the most exclusive city of Versilia: Forte dei Marmi.
But what makes this temple of “luxury street wear” for sneakers fans such a special stop? The shop has been developed with RFID-Radio Frequency Identification technology, which has revolutionized “the test experience” in fitting rooms allowing total interaction between in-store and online sales.
Using S.O.T.F. “fitting rooms”, are now capsules in which the Temera RFID system recognizes the choice of product and shows the details of the selection on an iPad. The innovative technology used in the shop also allows to offer the customer a series of suggestions, anticipating, for example alternative selections in the same size, color and brand.
It also offers additional support for shoppers in real time, even without the presence of sales staff: if a product is not available, the interactive system allows an immediate in-house stock as well as in other branches or in the digital boutique. Once the choice has been made, the customer can decide how to complete the purchase, choosing between immediate payment and collection, home delivery methods or collection at a later date in another store
Even before the pandemic, a very strong evolutionary push of the shopping experience in the store was evident. This was confirmed by Guido Mengoni, CDO of Temera
“The key is in the transition from shopping experience to “human experience”. Everything is reflected in the environment, which is becoming increasingly personal and aims to transform the time spent in the shop into a moment of pleasure and fun, which goes beyond the simple purchase process. In the post pandemic reopening we expect to see a strong acceleration in the development of solutions of this type”.
The satisfaction for the project is confirmed by Tommaso Andorlini S.O.T.F. CEO
