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E-book Extended Store : How digitalization effects the retail space design
The definition of the location variables is fundamental for both the retailer and the consumer, it includes a wide set of decisions. The most important variables to take into account are the geographical location and the type of structure. The choice of the venue includes the decision about the urban location of the retail point: city center or outskirt, commercial or residential district, etc. The typology can be: stand-alone store, shop within a commercial center, and so on. Every decision involves many trades off, such as the size of the location, the occupancy cost, the customer traffic (pedestrian and vehicular) and the consequent convenience for customers, the potential restrictions placed on the location, etc. Other influential factors, that should be considered, are the product characteristics and the shopping occasion. Indeed, a retailer can sell different types of products, such as convenience goods, shopping goods, specialty goods; and it has to take into account factors such as the density and distribution of the target market, and the uniqueness of the offering. Stores and all different types of retail spaces are not only places of trade. There is a different aspect to them, which is even more important to the society. People use shopping places as gathering places. Places where they can spend some time in. Today we’re facing with many different types of shopping spaces that are shifting from the traditional retail system to others, like temporary stores, pop-up stores, guerrilla stores, shop in shop, shop on wheel, road show, concept stores, flagship stores. The main factor, that is mutual in these new forms of shopping spaces, is “time” which is the driver that has made them so popular. These almost new forms of shopping are a response to a new society of consumers, with their modern socio-economic conditions. The consumers of the last decade are not as naive as before anymore. They are not easily fooled by the brands and basically, they think more about the products that they may purchase. So, it’s not the brand anymore that insist to the consumer to buy it, but it’s the consumer that gets curious about an item, follows it and eventually buys it, or if he doesn't make a purchase, he will at least get to experience it. Also, the financial crisis, the competitive pressure of the society and the social media, which is the fruit of the new technologies of our new era, and surely the pandemic have varied the scale of priorities and values. The act of shopping in the new society is moving on a time-space axis with a somewhat easily trustable in the future. The retail system could be considered as a faithful mirror of the society. By analyzing it, it can see that they have both been in a process of slow, but continuous, transformation.
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