Shopping 3.0 - As a joint project of the marketing agency Serviceplan and the companies of the Vitrashop Group Visplay, Ansorg and Vizona in Munich the innovative future project “weShop” was created. The store combines shop fitting, lighting and digital shoppability and provides exciting insights into the point of sale of the future.
Sweeping changes await brick-and-mortar retailing. Driven by the competition of e-commerce, changed consumer behaviour and the increased demand for entertainment, shops are developing into activity realms to be experienced. The expenditure and effort to attract customers and to produce a lasting brand experience has increased at a tearing pace. Static shop concepts with wide assortments are quickly giving way to changing merchandising, smaller assortments, scenes set for the goods areas and radiant highlight areas. Numerous displays and touchpads show the increasing integration of online media into brick-and-mortar retailing.
Europe’s largest independent communication agency, the Serviceplan Group, gets closer to the heart of future trends in commerce and has now, together with the retail specialists Visplay, Ansorg and Vizona and other partners set up a store in which visitors can gain an insight into visionary retail design and technology.
Automated retailing along the customer’s journey
The clear endeavours of brick-and-mortar retailing lie in the combining of all of the advantages of a shop and e-commerce. By means of modern RFID and beacon technologies customers and goods can be identified. In that way orientation according to the individualised customer profiles and needs can take place and sales can be automated.
The weShop shows some technical features at the various customer touch points which refer to the specific needs of the customer and furthermore create additional ones.
In that way, the digital presentation of goods and prices in the shop window and in the entrance area adjusts to the customer’s sex as well as to the information on his/her digital customer card. In the shop the customer can scan selected goods with a Smartphone and select them in accordance with his/her size and the desired colour. Also the fitting room provides pure service and automatically recognises which items of clothing are to be tried on. On a touchscreen, alternatives and matching accessories are immediately offered which, at the press of a button in the mirror, can be immediately viewed on one’s own body.
Finally payment is also made quickly and simply without long queuing at the cash desk: at the goods counter the automatically identified purchase is confirmed, the amount minus a personal customer discount is deducted from the customer account.
Wireless lighting control by tablet
With EASY, the digital lighting control system, Ansorg brings the future of retail lighting into the weShop. As a core instrument in retail design, lighting must creatively set the scene and be able to adapt quickly to changed merchandising, times of the day and changing customer flows.
The EASY control system provides maximum flexibility and design for the retailer. All of the luminaires in the weShop as well as the central luminous ceiling are fitted with intelligent control modules. By means of Bluetooth technology and an app developed for it all of the luminaires can be activated and controlled easily by a table and their light intensity and light colour temperature can be regulated individually. By touch luminaires are interconnected, light scenes are created and sequences proceeding automatically are programmed. In that way the retailer can himself/herself repeatedly create new, attractive realms to be experienced and set himself/herself apart from the competition.
In the weShop a change of colour on the edge of the luminous ceiling and colour-variable lighting contours on the display walls form additional eye-catchers. On the basis of programmed lighting scenes for the weShop, Ansorg shows the possibilities and the dynamic effects of the EASY lighting control app. The standard scene represents appealing boutique lighting with full light intensity and a slightly cool light colour temperature of 3500 kelvins in the shop and 4000 kelvins in the shop window area. The centrally installed luminous ceiling ensures bright and pleasant ambient lighting. It decisively influences the lighting atmosphere of the shop. Dimming of the luminous ceiling, for example, lowers the basic brightness and the accentuation of the goods then becomes more focused at the same time. The cyan peripheral area on the luminous ceiling and on the display walls imparts additional accents.
A second lighting scene shows warm ambient lighting, support by red colour accents along the edges of the luminous ceiling and the display walls. Running around the luminous ceiling is a black ceiling duct with accent spotlights which are directed towards the goods walls and the advice counter. By the pressing of a button a programmed sequence can be started, in which dynamic lighting effects generate an exciting atmosphere. The shop window luminaires vary their light intensity alternately. In that way for the merchandise a dynamic and exciting scene is set that makes clear how by means of light the perception and the presentation of the goods changes and the experience of the brands is intensified.
The weShop shows how brick-and-mortar retailing can assert itself and even become stronger in the future: the customer experiences all of the advantages of the digital shopping world as regards simplicity, flexibility and individualisation also in the shop. Flexible merchandising and lighting systems as well as creative retailing concepts lead to unique and dynamic realms to be experienced which guarantee shopping fun.
