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not written by ai; might have some mistakes
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A few weeks ago, I went with my friend to have dinner at this really awesome Thai place in Soho but there was about an hour long waiting. So we just walked around trying to kill some time. She took me to Reformation, a designer store for beautiful ladies, it was the tech integration in there that amazed me.
You walk in, very few clothes on the racks, atypical of a clothing retail stores. My friend, who was regular there, told me those are just samples and you need to select everything from their screens, and they deliver the clothes directly to you in the trial room.
from google places review
While this is not anything fancy like AI, which is making the buzz all over the tech circles, it makes me happy that basic tech like this is being integrated in brick and mortar stores to optimize logistics and operations. You have less effort spent on the store floor and more personalizing the experience for the customers.
While this integration is nothing new (Reformation itself seems to have this since over half decade at their stores), the lack of such smart shopping assistants in offline stores signals a major market shift for high end shopping.
This brings to my other end of this piece - experience. The tangible direct benefit to the customer might not be easily quantifiable, but they definitely love the experience of personalization or “techy” platform in real life. I also came across a viral review from a travel vlogger from UK at a Indian retail store in Goa, where smart tagging and detection systems improved shopping experience by linking the inventory directly to the customer in the trial rooms.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMnttSDhrU7/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
Have you been to a Kaitenzushi restaurant, where you get delicious food brought to your table by a revolving conveyor belt? It’s one of the best way to explain how experience is different from product offering and yet has significant impact on your business success.
https://japanquirky.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/sushiro/
The present and future is going to integrate AI heavily in our day-to-day lives. It won’t be restricted to chatbots in our phone or dev tools in our IDEs. The next generation of startups might not have large corporations like big tech MANG, but they definitely will have those who will turn boring traditional businesses into AI powered and optimized experiences.
When two businesses have same products, the aesthetics is what differentiates them. If you sell experience, bring in exclusivity, you already will have the cream of the market. The business will have to do intelligent analytics to identify their ideal customer segment - low number with high wallet size or high number with low wallet size, or a sweet mix of all. Either way, the future is going to reward the ones with the best customer experience and distribution (read Cluely’s Roy’s marketing strategy here).
So, wake up and start looking around you, identify the boring you see around you. Businesses have real problems with staff attrition and inventory turnover. Go on ground, learn how they operate and how you can help them cut costs and sell experience with their goods. And ofcourse make some (or more) money.