05/12/22

Retail Innovation Week Newsletter: Retailers moving home to the suburbs, personalize everything, out there innovations

The RIW newsletter provides the essential weekly inspiration for every changemaker driving innovation in retail and along the customer experience journey. This week we're sharing ideas with entrepreneur and investor David Kezerashvili around key personalization strategies to power engagement and drive loyalty, how the suburban retail revival is having its moment (again), and industry evolutions taking retail's future to wild new places.

Optimize a Personalized Shopper Experience with AI
The role of AI and data continues to evolve into a more public space, providing consumer-facing value. The latest retailer playbook made by our friends upstairs at PSFK, shows how retailers can deliver the optimized shopping experience that consumers have now come to expect will by leveraging next-gen applications of intelligence-supported shopping journeys, both in-person and digitally

Spotify creates a hyper-unique experience tapping emotions and AI
The global audio and media streaming service is expanding its personalization features with the help of artificial intelligence, delivering users the most optimal experience possible. Read More

Red Wing uses 3D tech for faster, optimally customized shoe fittings
The popular shoe and footwear brand is taking in-store personalization to the next level with an AI-driven “ultimate fit experience” for its customers. Read More

LivePerson’s AI bots create connections that are anything but artificial
The long standing conversational AI company develops personalized smart-commerce solutions that free up human service staff and deliver real business outcomes by proactively taking consumer intent into account. PSFK

Download Today: A Guide To Enhancing Shopper Personalization
For everyone looking to innovate in the retail sector: the 5 essential strategies for personalizing the consumer journey using AI technologies across services, platforms, and tools; optimizing engagement along key touchpoints to deliver superior, repeatable, retail experiences. Details

PSFK's Guide for retailers who want to win loyalty and accelerate spend by personalizing services for their customers.

Aging Out Of Downtowns, Retailers Return Home To the Burbs
The pandemic-driven exodus to the suburbs, solidified by a nearly nation-wide embrace of remote work, is seeing suburbia arise as the new “downtown.” For retailers who live and die by their foot traffic, it turns out the fruits of the current physical retail renaissance are best enjoyed outside of the city.

Amazon Go opens first format designed for the suburbs
Amazon is expanding the portfolio of its Amazon Go concept with a new, bigger format featuring the same checkout-free convenience, designed explicitly for suburban locations. The new store is being piloted in Washington state’s Mill Creek neighborhood. Seattle Times

For retail, it’s always been the suburbs
Even retailers that already have a strong retail presence in the suburbs (think: Target, etc.) are looking to expand their footprint as they bet on a shift in consumer lifestyle habits to exurban and suburban environments, driven in part by the staying power of remote work. Modern Retail

Mall operators are rethinking lease terms to bring back more shoppers
Shopping mall owners in the suburbs are adjusting their standard 10-15 year lease terms by offering special agreements to local and minority owned businesses. The hope is these new stores will add variety to the mall experience, and bring more shoppers in by appealing to current tastes. Chain Store Age

Amazon taps local businesses for delivery in less-populated areas
Amazon’s new local delivery partner may be the mom and pop store down the street. The company is piloting a program giving small rural businesses in underserved (at least by Amazon) locations a per-package fee to deliver customer orders within a 10-mile radius in states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Amazon

Early Signs of Retail Evolution Through New Tech Approaches
When the future arrives, will we be able to tell? A new generation of operational tools and innovative technologies is changing the way brands and retailers operate at a core level. Evolutions across both the back and front-ends of businesses' operations are helping create new efficiencies and driving better customer experiences.

Mars is using AI to design its latest food products
Mars is creating a new division called the Mars Advanced Research Institute (MARI) which will use science-backed AI solutions to help discover more plant-based ingredient options for the company, as well as predict connections that will inform new product formulations that taste better and perform better. The technology will be used to design food for both humans and pets. Press Release

To get products on shelves faster, Kraft Heinz turns to the metaverse
Kraft Heinz is hoping to use the metaverse to solve its supply chain issues with the brand’s Lunchables, Velveeta, and ketchup products. The company partnered with Microsoft to virtually replicate its supply lines and will use the digital twin model to identify bottlenecks and solve for ideal “flow” by creating a more resilient supply chain. Microsoft

Best Buy expands product assortment into new verticals
Best Buy is moving beyond its core product assortment by adding electric transportation, outdoor living, health and wellness, and skincare tech items to its shelves. The retailer will also provide repair services for its e-transportation products. Best Buy

DoorDash opens an IRL food hall in Brooklyn
DoorDash is launching a delivery-focused food hall concept that offers permanent indoor seating and a commissary kitchen featuring both national and local restaurant brands like Little Caesars and Brooklyn’s own Pies ‘n’ Thighs. The concept is part of the delivery brand’s DoorDash Kitchens ghost kitchen network experiment. DoorDash

Every week: a new guide to innovation in retail and along the CX journey.
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