"Controlling my data will be a fundamental human right in the 2050's" Phillip and Brian recap Future Stores Miami and get deep into futurism on what the future of humanity and commerce looks like as we evolve from Homo Erectus, to Homo Sapien and finally to Homo Deus.
Future Commerce was at Future Stores Miami last week, and the content was crazy good.
Stance is allowing customers all the benefits of shopping in-store, with all the convenience of checking out online.
The new wave of clienteling has brands building relationships on the customer's terms.
Will consumers be able to control who can use and abuse their data?
Stance, a digitally native footwear brand with physical retail stores has moved into self-checkout, but still offers regular cashier based checkout as well.
Phillip is apparently anti-footwear.
One of the reasons this is so cool? Because it highlights a new digitally based analog system coming to brick and mortar.
So how does Stance's online checkout work? Clients can shop in-store, and then use the website to check out from their phone, using Google Pay, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay or Paypal.
Stance's core brand tenant is pretty magnificent: "we exist to celebrate human originality"
One of the best parts of Future Stores was the focus on Clientelling, which is one of the themes of 2019.
How can a brand engage with their customers, in a way that is both engaging and tailored to a customer's individual preferences?
Swarovski is trying new things and taking some risks in its retail stores, with their Sparkle Bar which allows for customers to engage with the products without a sales associate.
And it seems that the benefits of this risky business have paid off: Swarovski is seeing purchases at higher price points, more brand engagement by customers, and customers are spending more time in Swarovski stores.
Another brand trying to understand it's customers better is Kohls, who's VP of Technology Shweta Bhatia, explained two buyer personas: A customer who picks up a black basket would be a customer who wants to be left alone as they shop, and a customer who picks up a red basket who want a sales associate to engage with them.
It really is all about letting a customer have the experience they want.
Data is continuing to be key in mapping out client experience, and Future Stores did not disappoint in that regard, Phillip got to interact with one of the technology vendors Tout Audio a speaker array that utilizes face-tracking and customer path journey to target audio directly to individual customers.
The Future Commerce team got to test out this process, because Lianne and Phillip both engaged with the speaker system, and heard entirely different things.
This points to the increasing personalization that retailers have been focusing on regarding customer engagement.
So how are retailers collecting and using this data? KFC and Warby Parker both had a lot to say about this.
Warby Parker is collecting a lot of data from clients, like purchase history and browser history, to make suggestions to customers.
And KFC is working with global wifi deployment to find out where customers are shopping when they're not at KFC (which sounds creepier then it is) to create a better in-store experience for customers.
Data is being collected from everyone, pretty much all the time, but who has access to that data, and how will they use it?
In 2018 Benedict Evans said that the term "personal data" doesn't mean anything, and really isn't quantifiable anyway.
Brian says that that people are going to have to learn how to manage their data, and will have to pick and choose who can use that information and for what purpose.
Phillip recommends the book Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harrar, which asks the question of what humans have evolved to become after overcoming wars and destruction and disease?
And lends another question, what will commerce look like when humans live to 100 or 250 years old?
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Retail Tech is moving fast and Future Commerce is moving faster.
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