We are familiar with shopping from business sites, e-commerce malls, search engines and even magazine portals, using the Internet and our smartphones to buy any kind of product or service. Leveraging media as stores is not a news, but the link is more and more valid in the opposite sense.   

According to some studies and considering the territory they serve, some supermarkets and malls attract much audience as prime time on TV, so they can be pictured as real communication platforms for brands. Canadian guru Doug Stephens, founder and president of Retail Prophet, and advisor of big brands such as Walmart, Home Depot, Disney and Bmw, highlighted it during Voices, The Business of Fashion event where latest industry and retails trends were discussed. 

Stephens defined our age as «the end of the beginning of e-commerce» and quoted three significant facts: about 9,000 shops ceased business in the US in the last 12 months, Alibaba registered sales for over 7 billion euro in 24 hours on “Singles Day”, Amazon is expected to become the largest fashion retailer in the US by the end of 2017.  

But the relentless growth of digital shopping doesn’t mean people do not like physical experiences anymore. The possibility of seeing, touching and tasting a product, talking to the retailer, being with a friend, are still highly impactful elements and, in some cases, they are crucial to decide whether to buy or not. That’s why, according to Stephens, shops are «the most powerful, measurable and manageable communication format that a brand could use». 

There are a lot of examples of brands which succeed in leveraging shops as media: from Apple, whose Stores are an acknowledged best practice, to Nordstrom, the department stores flagging entertainment and hospitality, up to Sneakerboy, the sportwear retailer whose stores in Australia are known for the long queues at the entrance. 

Offering a unique and distinctive experience is also a matter of engaging people well before they come into the store, maybe when they are a few steps far from it. How can we do this? That’s the benefit of mobile proximity marketing and platforms such as Movibell, which allow retailers to attract potential customers using the smartphone they normally carry along.  

Learn more about Movibell features on our site: the mobile app is available in Italian and English for iOS and Android devices.