Retail experts at ESADE highlight the potential of brick-and-mortar stores as marketing tools
“The speed of change will never be as slow as it is today, because the pace of technological change is exponential,” declared Hector Ibarra, Managing Director of Fjord, at the third edition of the Retail Revolution Conference at ESADECREAPOLIS. Mr. Ibarra presented a Fjord report entitled Trends 2018. “One of the battles in the tech world,” he observed, “has to do with the development of assistants capable of handling bureaucratic matters such as making phone calls.” According to Mr. Ibarra, this changes the paradigm for how we choose products: “If we ask Google to buy a product, it will choose the brand for us. This will radically change how products are promoted.”
Javier López, Director of Customers and Digital Transformation at Carrefour, commented: “Retail is no longer just about products on shelves. The new paradigm forces us to make two fundamental changes: to be omnichannel and to put our customers at the centre of what we do.” For this purpose, Mr. López explained, Carrefour has created an innovation centre with 239 employees, as well as a Carrefour app, which has already been downloaded by 1.5 million people. Among other features, the app provides the possibility of paying via the app and enhancements to the in-store shopping experience, as well as a personalised account where customers can consult their entire shopping history.
Physical spaces: the key to fostering customer engagement
“When we look at the competition, we do not look at other banks, we look at retailers” such as the Apple store, commented Xavier Mas, Marketing Director at CaixaBank. “We look at how they seek to engage with the consumer. We are modifying our bank branches on the basis of these examples.” He shared his experience with the creation of ImaginCafe. “This new 1,200 m2 space features a concert hall and a gaming area, and it makes no reference to the bank,” he explained. “It was designed to cater to millennial tastes, with the aim of achieving engagement.”
We want to be the Decathlon or the Ikea of travel,” declared David Hernández, CEO of Pangea Travel. This fully digital and omnichannel company expects to earn €30 million this year and has created the world’s largest travel stores. “We opened our Madrid store in October, and in the first month we earned €420,000. By contrast, a travel agency makes about €400,000 every six months, on average.” The company recently opened an even bigger store in Barcelona that includes a cinema, a climbing wall, a restaurant and a travel guide shop. “The stores are our image,” Mr. Hernández explained, “but you’d be wrong to think that the store of the future is just a pretty shell; the important thing is the people who help you, the value they add.” In today’s context, he added, “any company that is only physical or only digital is at a disadvantage”.
Diego S. Iriarte, Director of Retail, Wholesale and Innovation at Hawkers, discussed the “inverse digitalisation process”, wherein a company moves from digital to physical. Mr. Iriarte commented: “This is a complex path, because in the digital world you depend only on yourself. But when you move into the physical world, other factors come into play.” Hawkers views its stores primarily as “marketing tools” because “they account for 1% of turnover at most”, he explained. Mr. Iriarte noted that the company has chosen to focus on personalised and experiential stores that are adapted to the context. Moreover, Hawkers stores do not accept cash. “We don’t want to sacrifice customer traceability, which is the most valuable thing that our online channel provides.”
The event also featured the participation of Bart de Langhe, Associate Professor of Marketing at ESADE; Elena Foguet, Business Director at Value Retail; David Cantallops, Human Resources Director at Uterqüe (Inditex Group); Luis Vives, Associate Dean of the Full-Time MBA; Genís Roca, Chairman of RocaSalvatella; Pilar Insua, Regional Human Resources Manager for Southern Europe at VF Corporation; Jordi Serrano, founder of the Future For Work Institute; and Oscar García, Director of Retail Intelligence at CEBRE Spain. Introductory remarks were delivered by Josep Franch, Dean of ESADE Business School, and Oriol Alcoba, Director General of ESADECRAPOLIS. Accenture Digital was the main partner in the event.
