Physical & Digital Augmented
Luxury Retail - Connected Experiences
GOAL
To take the Store of the Future Concept (Isolated trials) and design a scalable and impactful luxury connected retail experience. For this project my team led the design of an augmented and omni-channel ‘Connected’ Retail experience to extend FARFETCH exposure in the phyiscal retail space.
We set out to answer ‘how might we leverage Digital technology in the physical space?’. We leveraged insight into the behaviours of our highest value clients and designed a bespoke and facilitated shopping experience.
OBJECTIVES
Growth for Partners - Conversion, revisits and brand social engagement
Platform (FARFETCH) Growth - Increase and retain partners
Market Leading Experience - shaping the industry for brand consideration, affinity and strategic positioning as an innovator
We created an experience that can be delivered in the near term with practical thinking, balanced with transformational and innovative thinking for the future. It should feel truly connected in a way that adds value, giving our clients more choice to shop whether they are at home, on the move or in store.
Our Approach
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Research & Personas
We undertook Market and Partner Research to understand underlying customer needs and behaviours to develop a set of personas. This gave us an asset that centered the design a real human needs.
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Co-creation
Global workshops to understand partner requirements. We Ideated on how might use technology and digital products and value mapped sketches against the needs of the personas in an augmented ‘connected’ experience.
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Guided Concepts
Synthesised ideas into shaped concepts. Recommended service experiences. over time and channel. Depicting the experience including how we want consumers to feel and how partners best execute the connected experience.
Feasibility Assessment
We made decisions based on benefits, development effort, strategic alignment and the current change landscape. This helped break down transformation design in to feasible executable parts, informing roadmap planning, functional priorities and project initiation.
Assessing Benefits
Choices for Execution
SOLUTION
Target Journey & Experience
We articulated how concepts and recommendation play out over time and channel. Depicting the experiences customers go through including how the ‘Actors’ in the service, like shop assistants, work alongside technology and digital products. Demonstrating their interconnectivity, value and the importance of human connection throughout the experience.
Global trials included:
Smart Mirror for Digital ‘In Changing Room’ experiences
RFID Tags to aid shopping analysis, improve security and drive complimenary recommendations
Facilitated shopping experiences (to help customers get all their needs met) supported by Shop Assisted app
Personalised ‘Look & Feel’ recommendations driven by previous purchase and shopping behaviour
SMART MIRROR
IMPACT & RESULTS
This project was very much about innovation for an industry, trialling new technology and making sense of its capabilities through a customer centric lens.
This had C-Suite level engagement and market recognition across the Luxury Industry. This was celebrated by our CEO:
“José Neves, Farfetch Founder, Co-Chairman & CEO, said: “Physical retail accounts for 93% of sales today, and even with online growing at fast speed, it will account for 80% by 2025. Retailers need a way to collect information about their customers while they are browsing in-store, just as they collect data from online searches1. Store of the Future aims at providing the in-store experience of the future by giving visibility to retailers on what is happening in the store. It’s the offline cookie that closes the loop, between a great online presence and a complete omni-channel offering and, finally in-store technology which augments the experience of customers in store and overall. The next stage in the evolution of the fashion industry is the connected store, which uses technology to enhance the luxury retail experience to become even more customer centric”
IMPACT & RESULTS
Trial Results were confidential as they are involve partnership stores and covered by an NDA. The trials measured:
Shrinkage
AOV
Store NPS
Store Traffic and walk in rate
Companion App engagement and Performance