Online + Offline = "Phygital" Stores

As mentioned in previous blog posts, businesses are moving into an era that takes a huge amount of innovation, collaboration and integrated application for marketers to reach their target audience. Partnerships between the online and offline shopping industries are needed and consumers are more likely to come back to a brand when omnichannel marketing is used. An article from Retail In Asia talks about a new store called NomadX is recently opened in Singapore to give consumers the "phygital" shopping experience.

The store occupies 11,000 square feet of space across two floors in Plaza Singapura, it has eighteen tenants that features a wide range of fashion, beauty, consumer electronics, gadgets as well as food and beverage offerings. NomadX also features the first physical store of Alibaba's Taobao. The shopping experience here at NomadX is a whole new experience to consumers as it integrates online and offline shopping experience. Previously online-only brands like Style Theory, Oo La Lab and Teapasar are also in the multi-label concept store. While in the store, customers can also use the touch screens in the shop to find style and products that suit them, the way that customer can learn about the products is also enhanced with technology. The diversity in product type and the innovation on interaction between customers and product will definitely bring customers of different ages into the store and increase their understanding of the brands and their products.

In California, a similar approach of bringing online shopping in-store is through Amazon's expansion into physical stores. Amazon has been growing rapidly in the past few years and seeing stores like Amazon 4-star, Amazon Books and Amazon Go come into the market has really shown how there are many ways in bringing the product and services to where the customers are. Online and in-store shopping are not two separate and different ways of buying anymore, but ways that could be integrated together to provide a better shopping experience for consumers. Amazon's physical stores is different from the multi-label store NomadX because Amazon itself includes a lot of different brands and products, customers are already familiar with what Amazon is selling. Therefore, the physical Amazon stores are a way of collecting consumer data, to see whether what Amazon sells suits their audience. It is also a chance for Amazon to further promote its name to people.

With the development and innovation coming from online stores going into physical retail stores, I am excited to see how shopping will continue to change in the future.

---

http://retailinasia.com/in-markets/south-east-asia/singapore/capitaland-unveils-singapores-first-phygital-multi-label-concept-store/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulCG705B2SE

http://fortune.com/2017/04/28/5-reasons-amazon-physical-stores/