As the country continues to reopen at varying rates, the news for much of brick and mortar retail is not positive. Coresight Research predicts up to 25,000 brick and mortar stores will close in 2020, a majority of them in malls. Neiman Marcus, J. Crew and J.C. Penney have filed for bankruptcy protection. Pier 1 Imports, GNC, Victoria’s Secret and Papyrus are closing multiple locations.
In this dark cloud, there is a silver lining, predicts past DPHA Conference Workshop leader Bob Phibbs in a recent blog. Malls are in trouble, but they were in trouble before the outbreak of coronavirus, and for good reasons. Phibbs notes that fewer consumers want a cookie cutter retail experience offered by Kay and Zales, Gap, Victoria Secret, Macys and J.C. Penny to name a few. “Shoppers are carrying every mall on their smartphones and have the ability to do anything as most any price point. Forget messaging or selling over the phone, the way forward is click-to-start-video chat.”
Phibbs does not believe the worst is over for retail. The pandemic will change brick and mortar retailing and shopping forever. Consumers will make an effort to visit your showroom because they want to see and touch faucets, hardware, countertops, vanities, accessories, finishes, floor and wallcoverings, sinks, and so on. Every product that a showroom sells can be acquired online. What can’t be acquired is the experience that your showroom delivers. And therein lies opportunity.
Re-opened showrooms will be best served by investing in team members. Showroom sales professionals must ask the right questions to determine why a stranger decided to make an effort to leave the comfort of their couch to visit the showroom. No one who makes the effort to visit your showroom is really interested in picking up their new toilet curbside. Phibbs believes that you need to adopt a merchandise mentality, focusing on how to raise margins, improve conversion rates and sales volume. Showrooms need to move beyond having to sanitize after every consumer visit, which is necessary right now. Creating strong customer relationships is what’s important and comes from adopting a merchant mentality, Phibbs claims.
Video meetings with consumers are not going to end once it is safe to return to whatever the “new normal” looks like. Showrooms will have to embrace new technologies to stay connected to their consumers. You can’t rely on field of dreams marketing where you rely on your built showroom to attract consumers. You will need to be available virtually at all times.
Consumers working from home for the last three months have, out of necessity, had to go online to work, shop and buy groceries. That behavior is not going to change. Showrooms have adapted by using new technology to reach customers and staff and must continually use technology to connect with customers.
The demise of iconic brands such as Neiman Marcus, Victoria Secret et.al. is because they attempted to standardize the customer experience and failed to invest in their teams. In showroom speak, they hired people whose skill set did not extend past their ability to take orders. An expensive and valuable lesson.
