What: The notion of “third space” has been evoked during a conference talk in Sydney.

Why it is important: This notion is at the same time extremely important, seducing, and difficult to toy with when it comes to pure profitability. Having a space acting as a town square would of course be extremely valuable to all stakeholders, but the difficulty is how to make this model profitable without being cynical at the same time.

Online retail experienced significant growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, but there is now a renewed focus on brick-and-mortar stores. Customers are looking to return to physical shopping for the experience while using e-commerce mainly for convenience.

At the eTail conference in Sydney, representatives from Blooms the Chemist, Godiva ANZ, and Catch spoke about their strategies for both in-store and online channels.

Godiva ANZ plans to make its stores a "third space" where customers can socialize, while Blooms the Chemist wants to improve its in-store customer experience. The speakers noted that the two channels complement each other and can be used to improve the overall shopping experience. Retailers are also using advancements in chat functionality and AI to replicate the in-store experience online.

Reexploring the notion of Third Space