06/09/22

Retail Innovation Week #44: Shoppers supercharge the sharing economy, social commerce can't stop evolving, getting experiential with digital, creative strategy lessons, stats!

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 around key activations within the sharing economy, why experiential marketing is having its digital moment, the growing role of social commerce in the retail marketplace, and a special can't-miss offer from our friends at Motion.

Engaging Shoppers In The Sharing Economy
Two decades into the 21st century, the majority of most shopper generations still struggle to make large financial commitments. Fractional economic systems not only democratize ownership and serve as investment tools for a wide audience, but new research from PSFK also shows they can have a far-reaching impact as a technology-backed framework for community engagement and retailer audience activation, mapping out what modern ownership really means by allowing consumers to become partners who actively participate in co-creation and decision-making.

eBay Vault is the future of ownership, trust, and collectible investing
eBay Vault will be a secure storage facility and digital marketplace for valuable collectibles where users can invest fractionally and transfer ownership from seller to buyer in a matter of seconds. Read More

Starbucks launches innovative program for next generation of loyalty
The coffee chain is designing a digital community of global brand fans by leveraging web3 technologies to create a business-adjacent model of shared-loyalty and beneficial ownership. Read More

BusyKid lets Gen Alpha buy fractional shares in their favorite companies
Chore-setting app BusyKid aims to make financial literacy accessible for young children and teens by giving them real-world experience managing the money they earn from chores. The app offers fractional shares from thousands of companies, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, Meta, and Google. PSFK

New PSFK Guide to Fractional Ownership
Discover 6 retail strategies for delivering against the emergent fractional ownership concept, including best-in-class examples of co-ownership-driven access to products, experiences, and more. Details

Learn The Art of Creative Strategy with our partner Motion
With so many marketing channels now available to retailers, it's more important than ever before that creative departments and media buyers are in lock step with one another. Well, the glue that ties those functions together is the Creative Strategist.

The creative strategist is the connection between an organization’s left and right brains. The left brain—analytical and methodical—is focused on data, KPIs, and ad performance. The right brain—creative and artistic—is focused on the innovations in producing an ad.

Our friends at Motion are offering RIW readers a special *Free* Download of their latest report, Becoming a Creative Strategist.

In the report, tailor made for our creative professional audience, learn how to:

Drive lasting growth by bridging the gap between creative art and science
Eliminate guesswork and improve ad results, saving hours of creative analysis and deep-dive back-and-forth
Get inspired with top insights from more than a dozen leading industry marketers and creative strategists.
Breakdown the different components of the Creative Strategist role (ideation, data analysis, briefing, retros, and more)
Properly and effectively gauge the performance of your paid advertising, while facilitating best-in-class creative
Use data and competitive analysis to power repeatable “sweet spot” ideation cycles
And that's just the beginning…

Experiential Marketing is Having its Digital Moment
As smartphones, a major gateway to the internet for millions of consumers, become a bigger driver of commerce, the organic retail experience is becoming more visual. AR, VR, and even IRL activations are giving shoppers a more complete picture of products and services, helping them make informed purchasing decisions without having to visit a physical store.

Alibaba’s Taobao opens fully immersive “metaverse mall” for 618 festival
618 (June 18) is an important shopping festival in China, and Chinese online shopping platform Taobao is inviting shoppers into a metaverse-powered virtual shopping experience to celebrate. Using their phones, shoppers will be able to guide avatars through 3D stores and engage in a number of interactive activities. Jing Daily

Google leans into experiential with new features and services
At Google’s annual marketing showcase, the company highlighted a variety of new ways to engage consumers with visual and immersive content across mobile devices, and stated its belief that “AR will become the next permanent staple in how shoppers interact with products digitally.” Google

Gucci opens permanent digital & retail destination on Roblox
Gucci is opening up a permanent digital space inside of Roblox called Gucci Town. The virtually explorable environment features a central garden linking together various metaverse areas that include mini-games, a cafe, and virtual retail store where users can purchase digital Gucci items and accessories for their Roblox avatars. Gucci

Netflix gets experiential IRL with Stranger Things promotion
Netflix used a scavenger-hunt-turned-experiential-campaign in London to promote its hit show Stranger Things. Billboards promoting fictional brands taken from the show, like Hawkins watches and Surfer Boy Pizza, slowly turned into portals where curious shoppers could pass through partake in a branded, experiential feast that included actors and even free pizza. The Drum

PSFK's guide into Fractional Ownership is a deep dive on how Brands & Retailed Can Engage Consumers In The Sharing Economy

More Info on Fractional Ownership

New: Original Consumer Insights from PSFK Quant Surveys:

Innovation Keeps Social Commerce A Hot Topic
The gap between scrolling and shopping is continually shrinking, as the online commerce experience is reinvented around the discovery element inherent to scrolling (and, ideally, pausing) through a social feed. Platforms and retailers alike are driving audience engagement through new features, acquisitions, and approaches to social commerce's exciting variety of purchase channels.

Amazon opens up war-chest to try and lure high-profile creators
Amazon has been sending offers of up to $9,000 a month, excluding commissions, to try and attract popular TikTok users to cross over to the company’s own livestream shopping feature, Amazon Live. Input reports on how the Amazon Live platform’s lack of a social aspect is one sticking point for attracting more social-media focused creators. Input

Glossier takes new approach by leaning on shoppable YouTube Shorts
Shoppable Shorts are a new shopping feature within YouTube Shorts that debuted yesterday (June 8). Similar to branded TikTok campaign challenges, Glossier’s YouTube Shoppable Shorts allow the retailer to display a shoppable product to anyone who uses a specific campaign hashtag. YouTube

Pinterest acquires AI shopping tool to expand fashion offering
Social platform Pinterest is acquiring startup The Yes, which uses data science and AI to offer recommendations across fashion and beauty products. The Yes CEO and co-founder will join Pinterest and lead the app’s shopping vision and strategy. The company has been working to harness visual search technology to inspire luxury fashion and beauty purchases, and attract advertisers. Press Release

Why retailers are paying customers to review products on TikTok
A new app called Bounty is allowing shoppers to monetize their reviews and recommendations on TikTok. Recently launched as a closed beta program with 16 brands including Bobbi Brown’s Jones Road, Bounty allows verified customers to earn money by posting on TikTok about the products they have purchased, adding a new layer of authenticity to social media marketing. Bounty

**GET THIS BRIEFING AS A WEEKLY EMAIL – Subscribe Today!**

This 90-page consumer insight presentation deck provides a pulse check on the wants and needs of mainstream shoppers, and was created specifically for retail business leaders. Get your complementary copy today with a Free Trial of PSFK iQ.

*Download with a Free PSFK iQ Trial*

More Retail News We're Tracking: