Jonathan Yaffe

Jul 14, 2022

Save We might be living in a digital-first world, but people are hungry for physical experiences after the recent global shutdown. Physical experiences are making a comeback as people flock to cruises, theme parks, retail stores and other places that were largely avoided or entirely unavailable during the height of the pandemic. But customer expectations have changed. People want better experiences than they had pre-pandemic. They want mobile check-ins, quick, efficient checkouts, readily available items in stock and other amenities to improve their experiences at physical locations. But many retailers are failing to keep the physical experiences they offer on par with digital experiences. Chris Gianutsos wrote for Ad Age that customer experience tends to break down in the physical realm, like when a brick-and-mortar store doesn’t have an item that the website said was in stock. He blamed this disconnect on failure to invest in physical experiences, and failure to address end-to-end customer relationships across physical and digital channels. However, there are some ways organizations can shift to offer improved physical experiences, build foot traffic from current customers and attract new business. 1. Redefine Physical Stores According to Jonathan Yaffe, AnyRoad CEO, the world is in the midst of a shift — from a “things” economy to an experience economy. And many brands are already evolving their strategies with this idea in mind. “That's why Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, has replaced stores with ‘House of Sports’ locations, complete with batting cages, rock climbing walls and fitness classes,” said Yaffe. “Michaels, the arts and crafts supply store, now teaches live art classes to over a million consumers a year, both in-store, and online.” These brands are taking advantage of newer technology that allows them to optimize the ROI of their experiential programs with data, Yaffe added. “Antiquated metrics like sales per square foot are being replaced for experiential performance indicators like brand conversation, loyalty and lifetime value. Brands are able to experiment and iterate on experiential investments just as they would with a new digital or social media campaign.”