Store sense: Reclaiming the four walls with - Deakin University

Wholefoods market-style shopping experience is America’s fourth- largest food retailer chain and
the world’s biggest, and most profitable organic grocer. Whole Foods has a distinct and innovative
approach to food retailing that clearly differentiates itself and delivers a unique customer experience.
Wholefoods emotionalises the shopping experience by appealing to the five senses. Shoppers are
encouraged to taste and touch, with the aromas of bread, coffee, smoked meats, and fruits defining
the retail atmosphere.
Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer and the largest in Europe, has evolved the traditional
hypermarket concept with its innovative Carrefour planet concept [35] .
The new concept has been carefully developed to appeal to all senses, and includes wide aisles,
softened lighting and nine colour-coded and themed zones, redesigned and rebranded to make
shopping more enjoyable and attractive for customers.
The market area offers fresh food in a marketplace atmosphere with a focus on the customer experience
with sampling and cooking lessons for example. The organic area offers organic brands and their
own private bio brand and the beauty area offers a virtual make up consultation and haircut area. In
addition, special in-store events are scheduled throughout the year, designed to arouse curiosity and
encourage repeat visitation.
Multi-channel technology is central to in-store communication with digital signage, kiosks and
demonstration centres. Through Carrefour planet, this retailer breaks with retail hypermarket
traditions and uses the merchandising methods best suited to each specialised selling area:
self-service, vendor-assisted sales, personal behind-the-counter sales and vending for example.
Conclusion
At a time when the retail industry is undergoing perhaps its most fundamental period of change since
the introduction of the shopping mall, retailers need to consider how their asset and channel mix can
be optimised for competitive advantage. The growth of online retail (and more recently m-commerce)
has naturally focused retailers’ attention on virtual channels of sales and promotion. It is important
to remember however, that the store experience is - and will be for the foreseeable future - a vital
point of interaction. For a low margin industry like retail, with high bricks and mortar investment and
operating costs, getting the best out of the physical store is more important than ever. As illustrated,
retail stores are essentially sensory blank canvases, upon which retailers can create their own picture of
the engaged shopper. Understanding the subtleties of how the senses can be engaged through light,
sound, touch, smell and taste, interwoven with brand architecture and intelligent promotional agendas
will be essential, if retailers are to capitalise upon the potential of customers in-store. For retailers who
embrace this sensory challenge, the future of bricks and mortar stores will be very different in the years
ahead, but it will without doubt be a much brighter, more interesting and a more engaging future.
That seems to make a lot of sense!
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