What:  IADS’ partner GDR quarterly report on innovation in retail.

Why it is important: A series of retail examples gathered by GDR from all segments and categories.

GDR identifies 6 trends this quarter: Regenerative brand building, New-trition, Multi-mission magnetism, Embodied marketing, Omni-flex optimisations, the Metaverse Emergence. We have made a selection of interesting cases from a retailer’s point of view below:

Regenerative brand building: it is all about highlighting brands which are embarking customers towards a sustainable future. Ikea for instance sells renewable energy to Swedish customers thanks to solar panels installed on their carparks, Madewell connects circular fashion with clothing care service, Tesco proposes refillable groceries, Lidl launches eco-store product labelling, or L’Occitane builds stores with material from its Terracycle recycling scheme.

New-trition: or how food and beverage are being disrupted. This part is more brand-oriented as it is all about new options when it comes to snacks, beverages, chocolates, etc..

Multi-mission magnetism, a phrase that GDR coined to talk about hybrid retail:

• Ikea which has launched a food and kitchen shop in shop in a HK grocer, or mixing housing and offices in Chinese store,
• A store mixing convenience and bank in Seoul,
• Really Local Group which transforms disused stores into multi-purpose community spaces,
• John Lewis which becomes a landlord by building 10,000 homes,
• A collaborative retail space in Shanghai, “co-retail” showing a selection of DTC brands,
• The Bloomie’s new store format, or the Ralph Lauren new ‘mini-store’

Embodied marketing with brands creating hand-on product trial opportunities to encourage customers to live their products:

• At Situ Live in London, nothing is available to shop, but it is all about product trial and then home delivery,
• Beauty giant Amorepacific launches a beauty library to encourage product trial,
• DTRC furniture brand Outer creates showroom network in its customers’ homes,
• Muji partners with Airbnb to offer home essentials to hosts.

Omni-flex optimisations : how on-demand delivery, livestreaming and flexible working habits are shaping an elevated customer service. For instance, 7-Eleven and Lotte are exploring staff-free stores in Lotte’s HQ, Lululemon uses digital educators to style consumers virtually, DoubleDash offers takeaway and groceries in a single delivery.

The Metaverse Emergence:

• a TV show, the Stoner cat, is only available to viewers who purchased a related NFT,
• Luxandia is a new virtual space aiming to be the leading luxury space in the metaverse,
• Visitors to Chipotle’s virtual restaurant receive free burritos in the real world,
• London O2 Arena launches in Fortnite, while Decentraland has launched its first  virtual festival in October,
• Dolce & Gabbana and Mc Donalds both launched and sold NFTs.

If there is any example you would like to deep dive in, let us know and we will liaise with GDR to know more.

GDR 80th Global Innovation Report