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

Why it is important: GDR scouts the world to source retail innovation on all its forms, from all segments and all categories.

This quarter, GDR identifies 6 trends : The NFT conundrum, The Metaverse landgrab, The Mature Store Age, Unapolletically Analogue, Open for Business and Re-economy. We have made a selection of interesting cases for a retailer’s point of view below:

• The NFT Conumdrum: GDR argues that the current NFT craze in the press is a smokescreen distracting many from their true potential when it comes to using NFT to foster customer loyalty and engagement:

+ Use them to create a members club, as shown by Flyfish Club (which will open in NY in 2023 only to holders of the company’s NFTs), the Adidas club, or, to some extent the Gourmet NDFT which pays chefs every time their recipe is bought (what about having department stores selling exclusive recipes from their top restaurants?),

+ Link them to subscriptions services or increased product experience: holders of bored Breakfast Club receive a free monthly coffee bag, while holders of Blockbar NFTs have access to a unique bottle of whiskey, and Valdé Beauty gives access to a VIP community,

+ Make NFTs a physical product: Samsung TVs now allow to buy, trade and display their NFTs, Selfridges reportedly sells NFTs over the counter, while there are mystery NFTs sold in machine dispensers in NY.

• The Metaverse landgrab: Retail is moving to the metaverse and brands are buying virtual land to build stores: Carrefour (Sandbox), B8ta (with employees’ avatars in the virtual store), Ralph Lauren (selling digital clothing and virtual coffee), Nike (Roblox), Procter & Gamble, Samsung (which reinvents its NY flagship store), CVS…
• The Mature Store Age: GDR reports that now, the era of retail innovation and tests has come to a tipping point and technology has matured and scaled. This is the reason why we start to see increasingly complex and fulfilling shopping environments:

+ E-commerce giants going physical, such as Amazon first fashion store with a seamless shopping experience, or JD.Com making the most of its logistics capabilities in physical retail, or Cisco’s store of the future

+ Brands are also upping the game in their flagships, such as Nike mixing metaverse elements with its physical flagships, Marks& Spencer using AR to provide customers with additional information, Starbuck partnership with Amazon, Fenty offering an AR-powered body scan of each customer to proposed tailor-fit products.

+ Unapologetically analogue:  retail is also about experience, calling out for all senses:

• Fragrances (Aesop sensorium),
• Food (lab-themed coffee shop, Primark partnership with Greggs, Hy-Vee liquor store),
• Apparel and shoes (Esquivel slow-fashion experience, Foot Locker family playground store),
• Hi-Fi (Bang & Olufsen trial focused pop-up in London),
• Emotions and mental health (Selfridges Superself).
• Open for business : how to emphasize diversity and fight against discriminations? It is all about helping customers (especially the impaired one) with the right tech tools, promote charities, cater for specific needs, or represent the diversity of customers through a revisited brand and product offer. The examples mostly include brands.

Re-conomy or how to source for customers’ desire for sustainability through products, services and packaging that tap into the idea of repair, upcycling, zero waste or carbon capture (the examples include mostly brands)

• Brands: the Converse lab which promotes reuse over purchase, Arc’teryx with its Rebird service centre, zero-waste hospitality and retail concepts,
• Stores: French store YesYes helping customers to repair their electronic devices, Ikea launching sustainable living zones in the UK,
• Sustainable services: purchase in bulk, environment-friendly delivery services.

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

GDR 81st Global Innovation Future