Customer Experience Secrets Of Brick-And-Mortar Superstars
By Jim Roddy, VP of Marketing, RSPA
By Jim Roddy, Integrated Solutions For Retailers
“If you’re in the brick-and-mortar business,” said shopping center developer Rick Caruso, “you need to be in the hospitality business. Consider the human needs you meet every day.”
That was just one of several thought-provoking quotes during the morning keynote Jan. 12 at Retail’s BIG Show, hosted by the NRF at New York’s Javits Convention Center. The session was titled, “Reimagining Main Street — How Brick-and-Mortar Retail Will Thrive in the 21st Century” and featured:
- Caruso, the founder and CEO of Caruso Affiliated. Caruso has created innovative shopping centers such as The Grove in Los Angeles.
- Blake Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom, Inc.
- Candace Nelson, founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles Cupcakes
Below are eight more quotes from the session that should motivate and guide retailers to improve the customer experience at their stores:
“Embrace your advantage which is disruptive to the technology that thinks it is so disruptive to you.” — Caruso
“We’re trying to stay as close to the customer as we can and stay in lock-step with them. If you don’t, they will move on somewhere else.” — Nordstrom
“Shopping serves the need for relaxing and community. What we all do for people goes far beyond the things they can place on a shelf or hang in a closet.” — Caruso
“In the short period of time they shop with us, we want the customer to feel pampered.” — Nelson
“Shopping malls were built to get customers in and out efficiently. We wanted to turn over the parking lot. Now if you find ways to keep the husband and child on the property, there’s no pressure on the mom to leave and she buys more.” — Caruso
“Indoor malls are dead if they don’t get reinvented. No indoor malls have been built since 2006 I think. When a product is no longer produced, that’s a sign it’s no longer wanted.” — Caruso
“Urban cities have a level of energy and excitement — a rich experience — that we’re trying to duplicate. It’s clear what we need to do, but it’s difficult to get there. We need to plant the seeds today that will serve the customer three to five years from now.” — Nordstrom
“We like to embrace the crazy. We’re always talking with our customers. Marketing is easy when you give them something to talk about, like the cupcake ATM. It’s re-energized traffic to our brick-and-mortar stores.” — Nelson
Retail’s BIG Show and EXPO, hosted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and billed as the world's leading retail event, is being held Jan. 12-15 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. The event expects to attract 29,000 retail executives and 550 exhibitors from more than 80 countries.