As shopping adjusts to life in the post-modern age, where all is uncertain and ephemerality rules the day, retailers are forced to innovate new selling techniques.
In the words of Sid Muller this week at the 8th Annual African Congress of Shopping Centres, "nothing will ever be the same again".
The poor economic climate and personal safety concerns that plague contemporary societies have caused a change in demography and an acceleration of technology that has left retailers wondering where to go next.
It is no longer enough to offer a space in which consumers can purchase.
Shopping is now an experience and "one size no longer fits all".
The marketplace has evolved to serve as a meeting place between disciplines, between fashion, music, street art and other elements that influence the social consciousness. The public and private have merged, involving a melding of ages, genders, and cultures.
Within a single store consumers may now be able to participate in the design of their clothes, surf the internet, and read a magazine.
With so many activities taking place in the same location, some stores are beginning to take on the character of an amusement park.
Brian Beavon of Spar acknowledges he is involved "not just in the food business, but also in the entertainment and fashion business".
Stores now have to "excite and delight".
One new sales technique beginning to emerge as a serious contender in the marketplace is e-commerce, which already has 6% of the US market. The ease and convenience of buying items from your own home makes internet shopping a pleasant option for many products and allows consumers to be smarter about their purchases.
StoreAge, a design collective based in Amsterdam, is at the forefront of this enterprise of innovation.
Employed by companies like Nike, T-mobile, Levi's and Motorola, Jason Steere and Leenert Tange emphasise the importance of "claiming mind space".
As self-consciousness and impulse now contribute to a buyer's decision, it is important to realise the role of retail space. Steere and Tange have developed a programme, still in prototype form, to work as a virtual dressing room.
Shoppers may choose different environments for themselves based on the products they are trying, learn about important features of the products, and watch inspiring films - all in the course of the virtual experience.
A new concept devised by crafty marketing geniuses to be tested in Cresta Shopping Centre is reality shopping, inspired by the outburst of reality TV shows.
By employing live models in the retail environment, reality shopping is intended to "heighten the shopper's senses and intensify one's shopping experience". - Argus Network
Publisher: Argus Network
Source: Argus Network
