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Trends and Insight in association withSynapse Virtual Production
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Fitzroy Launches Recession Resilient Whitepaper

09/12/2022
Advertising Agency
Amsterdam, Netherlands
111
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In the whitepaper, Fitzroy set the scene for the new retail landscape

Every year, retailers are faced with new challenges. Sustainability, pandemic lockdowns, new product development, diversity and inclusivity matters, staff shortage, digital transformation and inflation. Just to mention a few.

At Fitzroy, we’re driven by curiosity and constantly looking ahead. In this case, to anticipate what’s next for retail. In this whitepaper we set the scene for the new retail landscape. We’ve pinpointed four shifts and the emerging consumer mindsets currently influencing retail in the Netherlands and beyond. In addition to our desk research, we spoke to 10 retail experts about how they view sustainability, consume less and the blend between the physical and online world. They shared great new insights and provided us with a much-needed reality check regarding today’s capricious retail landscape.


1. Let’s Get Phygital: From physical or digital to hybrid

On-demand, hybrid lifestyles have changed the face of retail for good. Shopping, whether it be for groceries, fashion or a new car, is more about sensory interaction and smooth experiences than transactions. Technology is expected to be omnipresent yet invisible at the same time. With the aim of providing the user with unique, interactive experiences. In this way, retailers can meet the consumer expectation of IWWIWWIWI or I Want What I Want When I Want It. For a successful retail concept, on and offline should be intertwined at all times. Phygital services and products use technology to connect the digital and physical worlds. Based on the customer buying journey and interactions, Phygital is all about the three i’s: Immediacy, Immersion, and Interaction:

  • IMMEDIACY: Implies being available for the customer regardless of the channel.
  • IMMERSION: Implies the complete involvement of consumers throughout the buying experience.
  • INTERACTION: Involves creating a humanising experience even in the digital space, so buyers feel connected with the brand.

As a retailer you have to determine when the customer wants which ‘i’ and how you are going to shape it. For those retailers that serve both the Baby Boomer and gen z (1995-2010), this is quite a task because the last generation has a phygital reality and sees no difference in online and offline anyway. 

The white paper discusses best practice: 'Data Tienda' as an example of phygital.


2. Retail Clubhouse: from cash to cultural currency

With the increase in online sales, the role of the physical store seems to be changing for some retailers. In some situations, the store becomes a clubhouse. A house that feeds inspiration through unique experiences and articles. And where community building is the overarching goal. When we look at pioneers in this field - such as Patta, but also the recently opened golf clubhouse Bisque on Rozengracht - we see the same approach to creating real interaction. Ido Voos van Bisque: "Consuming is buying and the sense of belonging. Consumers derive their identity from what they buy and where they buy it. So by curating products, retailers can inspire them and help them in their search for identity. Let see as a retailer that you are part of the community and create a kind of secret handshake.”

Although the clubhouse movement in retail seems to be separate from digitisation, the two do go hand in hand. The ‘directed search’ element of the digital world fuels the concept of discovery within the retail landscape. By facilitating this discovery-based approach, you as a curator can become culturally relevant to your community. And by being in constant dialogue with your customers, as a new school retailer you create a different kind of profit: cultural currency. Which of course will eventually lead to that other profit.

Best practice: Patta Academy


3. Smartsumption: from showing to knowing

“The Dutch have coined a word for consuming less: consuminderen. But it just doesn’t have a good ring to it. And of course consumers are not wired to appreciate the notion of less. Less doesn’t sound appealing. Instead, we should be speaking in terms of smarter.” Explains retail expert Aad Boon.

A growing group of conscious consumers wants to have more unique and meaningful relationships with the products they own. They are trying to buy less, but better and are making more strategic choices when it comes to purchases by doing more research and taking some time to think. But although people are increasingly embracing this slower mindset, we’re still programmed to want more, more, more. Retailers are doing their best to respond to the signals from society. They therefore offer products that - especially in times of crisis - last longer and/or are easy to repair. As a retailer, you can even go one step further and offer free repairs.

Consumers will invest more time in doing online research before purchasing. Compare (online) and view more reviews. As a retailer you will have to tell the honest story of the product; how it was made (process) and by whom (people). Not only for more expensive products, but also for the cheaper ones. Because that's actually where the most doubt lies. How good are the Action's Christmas lights, really? Provide clear information and, if necessary, show with objective studies that your product really lasts longer. Thus, the price of the product gets more value. Or offer the opportunity to give the purchased product a second or third life. As SAMSØE SAMSØE has done in this best practice: Resell tag. 


4. Green hedonism: from sustainability to green luxury

The new focus on sustainability is no longer just about organic alternatives or lower footprints, but about a holistic approach to a better future. A future in which sustainability is the new sexy and the new normal. It is being integrated into everything we do and buy. And because expectations are increasing, all eyes are on (big) brands to step it up and to make sustainability something cool and hedonistic. We should expect little from politicians, says Prof. Dr. Filip Caeldries of Tias University. Politicians only think in short periods of 4 years. If we want to change the world, we will have to turn our eyes to large multinationals. They can initiate real changes and have a positive impact on people, process and planet.

"Sustainability and inclusiveness are the themes for retailers at the moment," says René Repko. “In the good times (2015-2021), retailers were already struggling with sustainability, new product development, inclusivity, digital transformation and better solutions for customers. This gap now needs to be caught up even faster amidst the declining purchasing power. I don't think that large parties are doing greenwashing, by the way. They are just slower in transforming. But their volume is large, which is why small steps already have a huge impact."

Best Practice: Ikea's Green Oasis

Whether you are a big or small player in retail the four shifts described in this whitepaper cannot be ignored. The retail market used to be more about transaction. But in today’s  dynamic it’s becoming more about interaction. According to Adriana Hoppenbrouwer of  Virtual Fashion House, The Fabricant, Web3 is changing the very fibre of what it means to be a consumer. Traditionally, consuming implies that brands are pushing products towards the end user which they will then consume as is. This notion is being defied by We3. Because there are no boundaries of creativity. So, now people can be part of the value creation. They want ownership, IP rights and voting rights.” We urge retailers to make sure they think about how they will embrace these changes. 

Download the 58 page white paper here.


The following retail experts were interviewed for this white paper: Martin van Velzen (Blokker), Rozemarijn Dolman-Plante (Nespresso), Adriana Hoppenbrouwer (The Fabricant), Ido de Voos (Bisque), Onno van der Poel (Bol.com), Allan Henrich (La Gardere) and retail experts René Repko and Aad Boon.

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