The physical point of sale: an attractive destination (by Romina Giovannoli)

About 3 billion people around the world have welcomed smartphones into their lives over the past decade. An almost equal number of people globally are registered on a social network. From these two aspects it can be deduced that almost half of the population is online, reachable at any time, and is able to interact in real time with other people and with companies. Despite this constant connectivity and the opportunities offered by technological innovation, online can never permanently supplant offline as the Xiaomi vice president says: "Seeing is believing, you have to make sure that people try the product first". So if for decades location and assortment have characterized the retail world, determining the success or failure of the store, today the physical store must evolve to fulfill new peculiar functions in which consumers in many cases seek physical contact with the store. product. From the analysis of the way in which the consumer approaches shopping, it emerges that the shopping experience based on the simple display of the goods on the shelf is no longer sufficient because people do not buy goods, but meanings: they choose products and services following the emotional sphere , psychological and psychosocial. Consumers are willing to pay more or less for a product depending on the quality of their experiences.

" The times in which the purchase choice was made on the basis of the 'technical superiority of the product' are outdated, and this requires the marchat, alongside the offer, to express themselves, to tell stories capable of conquering the mind and the heart of people "(Kotler, Stigliano, p.66, 2018). So product experiences are more important than products themselves because they dictate to consumers what to buy and consume.

Consumers are always looking for new stimuli during the purchase phase as they want an active involvement, an emotion, a motivation to enter a store and choose a brand or a product for the first or for the umpteenth time. Thus the shopping experience keeper becomes important to make the consumer experience significant moments inside the store where the purchase represents only the conclusion of a very articulated purchase path.

Observing the changing expectations and desires of consumers when they go to a physical store, we see the fall of the axiom that the purpose of a store is the economic transaction. Many people see the store as a kind of “playground” where they can learn new things and express a sense of belonging, a style or a particular attitude. So a place where new shoppers expect more a playful, recreational or informative experience rather than concluding a purchase. The importance of contextual experience and the emotional sphere is demonstrated by this fact: more than 85% of consumers around the world declare that they are willing to pay up to a quarter more than the base price of a product in exchange for a relevant experience to remember. From this it can be deduced that the point of sale becomes a point of experience that is no longer perceived as a have-to-go-place but as a want-to-go-place; therefore a container of satisfying experiences where the shopper does not have the burden to go, but the desire and pleasure of being.

As we said at the beginning of this article, the consumer is conditioned by emotions and fantasies, as well as by his own experience, and "when he goes shopping, he not only seeks the information necessary for a functional and utilitarian choice, but wishes to expose himself to sensory and playful stimulation. , to satisfy aesthetic needs and obtain gratifications according to the pleasure principle "(Kotler, Stigliano, p.69, 2018). Therefore, the exploratory and relational components are an integral part of retailing and must be valued even when they do not translate into a transaction because only in this way will retailers be able to establish an emotional connection with their customers and give answers to their aspirations that the digital fails to give. Physical stores must become "magical" places to live where the customer carries out a process of identity construction of the self and then gradually transforms into a lifestyle marketplace, places where people are given the opportunity to explore the world intrinsically linked to products or to brands.

The physical store must be seen as a creative meeting space between consumer and brand. "An attractive destination in which people can immerse themselves and the values ​​of the brand are not only displayed, but made to live in first person, and the figure of success is not given by the increase in sales, but by the narrative that is inside. "(Kotler, stigliano, p.73, 2018). From this we can deduce that if a purchase in the digital age can be concluded anywhere, the absolute peculiarity of a physical store must be the keeper experience.

Romina Giovannoli

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The article The physical point of sale: an attractive destination (by Romina Giovannoli) comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-punto-di-vendita-fisico-una-meta-attraente-di-romina-giovannoli/ on Tue, 27 Jul 2021 13:14:21 +0000.