The retail trifecta

There tends to be three key elements to providing shoppers with not just a good, but a great shopping experience. So good that they want to come back again and also give them the confidence to tell their friends and family about it…

1. Point of sale/back office systems

The unseen hero in all of retailing is the system that is the backbone of a retailer’s operations. It ensures things are in the store at the right price when we want them. Allowing us to seamlessly and quickly transact without too much wait time, and in the true discretionary spend retailers, providing the retail store staff with readily accessible information to help us with our purchase or recommended other items to us.

2. Outstanding store design

Design that attracts us to enter, holds us captive in store for longer than we should and allows us to feel comfortable and confident enough to spend. This is either intrinsic in the shopping environment, such as the feeling you get at farmers markets or in souks, floating markets and bazaars in the developing world. More often in the west it’s shaped, designed and created to allow us to feel involved.

This is not a new phenomenon. From Spitalfields and Covent Garden in London, The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul to Vic Markets in Melbourne, all of these large retailing spaces achieve this today and have for the hundreds of years.

3. Genuine service from passionate and knowledgeable store staff

This one pays out like a trifecta when retailers align all three.

This week I visited a new store in Melbourne that nails all three. In fairness, it is the result of a significant investment by the company that owns it but, importantly, in my mind as a shopper it isn’t just a design statement, it actually works.

As a benchmark, many years ago in a past life I sat on the board of a company in the UK that invested millions and millions of pounds in showcase stores in some of the most expensive retail real estate in the world… and the stores NEVER made money. It again illustrates my learning that you never make money just with expensive fit-outs – you need the trifecta.

OPSM Eye Hub on Burwood Road in inner suburban Melbourne is truly world class. Rather than attempting to have you “picture this”, just Google the store and experience it for yourself. The combination of very good point of sale and back office systems, innovative design and the best staff from within the business who just love retailing, is what makes it a trifecta ticket. And there is absolutely no point in putting significant amounts of money into business assets without the right people to make the asset shine.

When Qantas invested significantly in its A380 fleet, they chose applicants from the best cabin staff across the fleet. When you fly in the A380 irrespective of cabin class, you enjoy a world class experience made possible by combining a great asset with great people.

At OPSM Eye Hub the similarities are scary, including not just an expensive world class asset with great staff, but also the “vertical garden” that is at the entrance of the store, and at the entrances of the Melbourne and Sydney Qantas First Class Lounge. These two lounges won the global award for best airline lounge in 2009. Can I suggest that the OPSM Eye Hub deserves consideration as one of the best retailing spaces created anywhere in the world in 2010?

First class experience doesn’t just have to be with an airline.

In his role as CEO of CROSSMARK, Kevin Moore looks at the world of retailing from grocery to pharmacy, bottle shops to car dealers, corner store to department stores. In this insightful blog, Kevin covers retail news, ideas, companies and emerging opportunities in Australia, NZ, the US and Europe. His international career in sales and marketing has seen him responsible for business in over 40 countries, which has earned him grey hair and a wealth of expertise in international retailers and brands. CROSSMARK Asia Pacific is Australasia’s largest provider of retail marketing services, consulting to and servicing some of Australasia’s biggest retailers and manufacturers.