These 10 Ideas In Retail Innovation Will Change The Way You Shop

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At Springwise, we rely on a network of over 15,000 spotters worldwide to send in

fascinating and innovative new business ideas for us to review and write up. Of
the hundreds of spottings we receive each day, many of the most interesting and
surprising come from the world of retail, and it s here that we ve decided to focus
our lens for this month s top ten.
Retail is of course an incredibly broad category. It can cover everything from the
supply chain down to point of sale promotions, and this is something we ve tried
to reflect in this list, from Memove s RFID innovation to Selfridges Quiet Zone cam
paign.
One thing to note is how many of the ideas below can be linked by their desire t
o make the shopping experience more enjoyable, be it through speeding up payment
s and helping customers skip queues, providing a uniquely quiet and relaxed reta
il environment, or gamifying shopping by enabling customers to pay with points e
arned exercising. There are plenty of factors that can make shopping an unpleasa
nt experience, and any effort to counteract that will always be appreciated.
What s more, none of these examples give the impression of being bolted on at the
last minute, in the way conventional Buy One Get One Free campaigns often do, for
example. Rather, these innovations have taken place at the heart of the product
or shopping experience, and, as a result, have transformed that experience into
a genuinely useful one. This sense that these innovations are serving a real pur
pose be it enabling customers to see how popular clothes are on Facebook for soc
ial validation, or involving the customer in the selection of what products are
available in-store
creates a unique retail experience, engaging the customer in
a way they are not likely to forget. There s lessons and inspiration here for inno
vators in every industry
1. Jeans store uses QR codes to make shopping easier for men

Shopping can be a trial for some, and it s a widely held belief that many men can
find it more of a chore than women. Aiming to improve the experience for men, Ho
inter added QR codes to their jeans so that customers could simply scan the code
in order to get their desired size delivered to a changing room ready for them
to try on. This streamlined process saves customers from having to wade through
piles of clothing to find their size, ultimately speeding up a shopping trip for
those who would rather be elsewhere.
Read more about Hointer

2. Facebook app lets runners pay with kilometers completed

We ve seen apps that reward their users with motivational phrases when they exerci
se. However, Nike Mexico took this a step further with their Facebook auction, S
ubasta de Kilometros, which allowed runners to accrue points for every kilometre
run and then use these points to bid on Nike-branded running gear in the auctio
n. Through this app Nike Mexico cannily provided an extra incentive for runners
to keep fit, at the same time as promoting their products.
Read more about the Subasta de Kilometros

3. In China, virtual reality stores turn open spaces into a supermarket

With the aim of providing a more interactive shopping experience, Yihaodian in C

hina developed augmented reality stores that can only be accessed in certain pub
lic locations. When customers point their smartphone in the right direction at l
ocations such as public squares, a virtual store is displayed where items sit on
shelves or hang from the walls. This app provides a simulation of a physical re
tail store so shoppers can feel more immersed in their online shopping trip.
Read more about Yihaodian

4. In Denmark, supermarket crowdsources suggestions for local products

As concerns grow over food air miles, and more consumers want to buy local, Supe
rBrugsen in Denmark has come up with a novel way of ensuring that the produce th
ey stock will appeal to eco-minded consumers. Through their website, customers c
an suggest particular local items they would like the store to stock, after whic
h managers will taste-test the items to ensure their quality. A clever way to us
e customer crowdsourcing to ensure that the store only stocks items that will se
ll. The crowds have also been put to good effect in the Netherlands through the
Avoid The Shopping Crowds app that analyzes social media feeds to tell the user
how busy a shop is before they enter it. Both businesses use crowdsourced data t
o improve real life experience.
Read more about SuperBrugsen

5. Mobile app lets retail store shoppers skip the checkout lines

The convenience of popping to the shops for a few grocery items can be hampered
by long queues. This was something the brains behind QThru recognized when they
developed their app, which allows shoppers to browse, scan and buy products all
through their phone. Skipping the queues is an appealing prospect for many, and
with that in mind we also saw SoPost, which uses customer s email addresses to del
iver purchases, rather than the traditional home or work address. An interesting

idea that reflects the increasingly mobile lives many lead.

Read more about QThru

6. Brazilian fashion retailer displays Facebook

stores

likes

for items in its real-world

We ve seen those involved in retail adjust impressively to the increasingly online

world we live in. C&A provided a good example of how the real world and the onl
ine can converge to create a modern shopping experience. By displaying Facebook l
ikes on small screens embedded in articles hangers, the retailers showed the incre
asing tally of likes different items of clothing were receiving from web users. Th
e hope was that approval from the online community would encourage shoppers to p
urchase an item of clothing.
Read more about C&A

7. Machine accepts cards for tips

Increasingly, cash is being passed up in favor of card payments. This makes for
a lighter purse, but can also mean that cash rituals such as tipping can be left
by the way side. DipJar aims to remedy this by offering an easy way for cardhol
ders to tip, in the form of a machine placed near the till that customers need o
nly place their card into quickly for a USD 1 tip to be taken. If they wish to g
ive more they can just place the card the desired amount of times. A simple inno
vation for the retail industry that encourages generosity in a world where plast
ic is paramount.
Read more about DipJar

8. Calming UK store campaign includes quiet shopping areas and debranded product
s

Facing the shops can be a fraught experience, particularly at busy times such as
seasonal sales or the lead-up to Christmas. Nowhere are the staff more aware of
the stress involved in shopping than at Selfridges, a huge UK department store,
and they decided to lessen the burden for customers by introducing the No Noise
campaign. Specifically, when customers entered designated silent areas they had
to remove their shoes and hand over their phones. All products in these zones w
ere de-branded. Concern for customers will rarely go unappreciated, and Selfridg
es may well have earned themselves a few life-long customers with this campaign.
Read more about the No Noise campaign

9. In New York, bedroom furniture store lets customers nap for free

Making customers feel comfortable can only increase the likelihood that they wil
l make both a purchase and a return visit. COCO-MAT took this truism quite liter
ally, and offered a try-before-you-buy approach for their beds. Visitors to the
store were allowed to nap in the beds for a couple of hours and received a free
glass of orange juice, but were not obliged to buy after trying. The idea behind
the campaign was to spread word of the bed store and consequently increase foot
fall.
Read more about COCO-MAT

10. At Brazilian retailer, RFID tracks merchandise from manufacturer to customer

Shop assistants must dread the words Have you got any more of ? seeing as it often p
rompts a trawl through the back room to see if an item is available in a particu
lar size. But Brazilian Memove s RFID stock tracking technology could consign such
headaches to the past thanks to tags stitched into the clothing that monitor al
l items from manufacturing to the moment the customer walks out of the shop with
the purchased product. Keeping track of the stock supply chain can be made much
simpler through the use of technology, and Memove provides a fine example