CONSUMER SHIFT – RETAIL DESIGN

With the increasing trend of online shopping, on-request delivery, and e-commerce businesses, consumer needs and preferences, and buying patterns have changed. Today every customer demands innovation and personalization in each product and repair consumed by them. The retail industry today has been jolted due to digital innovation and organizational change creating an impression on consumer behavior. Consumers today are just a click faraway from checking reviews, doing comparison pricing thus relying more on online and mobile shopping.

Many traditional retailers today are moving toward digital platforms to enhance user experience and dealing consistently with what customer desires. On the opposite hand, online retailers are moving towards opening from brick and mortar stores in prime locations to supply the consumers with an experience that can’t be provided by a tool. Today both online and offline retailers are working towards a standard aim i.e. to make a customized, integrated, and consistent shopping experience in the least points of contact with the customer.

With increasing numbers of informed consumers are persuaded digitally at every stage of their purchase journey. Today Indian shoppers prefer digital platforms as compared to offline sales representatives for activities like product pricing, product information, and merchandise availability. Thus, making it necessary for retailers to enrich their traditional methods of selling with some digital blend thus providing customers with a seamless shopping experience.

With the trend shift in consumer behavior, retailers got to shift their focus from volume-based sales to delivering value-added services. Thus, making it necessary for physical retail stores to survive during this competing environment. Retail designers got to understand the new need of shops and made up store designs that are modernized and scalable and can help retailers to evolve, grow, and capture more and more new customers.

With the outbreak of an epidemic, people have faced lockdowns and are reluctant to travel out and roam around due to the fear of getting infected but soon there'll be a time where people will begin of their homes checking out new experiences, and retailers must be prepared for this upcoming opportunities and begin planning and retail designers should work earnestly and craft designs which are inviting and focus lies on creating a customer journey where the shop will get to accommodate new scenarios counting on what the audience is. COVID19 had a very bad impact on the retail sector but as time moves on post-COVID retail experience will become more meaningful. Personal interactions between humans and brands will become more coveted making it more important for the retail design to fill therein need state.

The ’New Normal’ is masked and distanced, then purchase behavior. Following the govt and business SOP’s at an equivalent time would be challenging but to win they believe us (Retail Design Agencies). D’Art knows the buyer shift pattern and acts consistent with it while delivering. Also, the tougher task is while brand activations, where to ask people within the time of COVID to the brand installations is hard. But we accept the tricky ops and have designed ‘social-distanced’ activations.