Think Retail - print's role in the retail market of today

THINK
RETAIL
Innovation in retail and
print’s role in the retail
market of today
Summer 2015

Introduction
The evolution of retail
Consumer psychologies
Connected consumers
Innovation
Where’s the opportunity for print?
Conclusion
How can PSPs get started?
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Contents

Retail is no longer about stores stocking
shelves and waiting for shoppers to walk
through the door. The retail market is saturated
and, as a result, is highly competitive. There
has been a surge in innovation to simplify
and make the shopping experience richer
and more convenient for consumers,
while at the same time providing greater
opportunities for brands and retailers.
Think Retail will look at the current retail
landscape and how it is undergoing a period
of rapid change – from the way that retailers
are rethinking the customer journey to the way
consumers are shopping. It will look at the
innovations that are set to change the way
we purchase, what role the print world has
and how print service providers (PSPs) can
tap into today’s dynamic, fast moving and
lucrative retail market.
Global Retail and E-Commerce Sales Forecast, 2013-2018, MarketingCharts.com, 2015
1.
2.
The global retail market is
set to exceed $23.9 trillion
in 2015, up 6.4% from 2014
93.3% of sales will be
through brick-and-mortar
stores in 2015, compared to
6.7% through ecommerce
Introduction
1
2
1

On 11th August 1994, the traditional retail
industry was blown wide open when the
first secure purchase was made online.
What was purchased? A copy of Sting’s
Ten Summoner’s Tales album. In the two
decades since, while the principle of retail
has remained the same, the number of ways in
which we can make a purchase has multiplied.
Traditional
shops and
departments
Mail order
catalogues
Telephone PC and laptop
computers
Our shopping channels
today include:
Mobiles Tablets What’s
coming next?
Despite the choices ending in the same result,
there is still great debate around where retailers
should focus their budgets and activities, in
particular, if it should be in brick-and-mortar retail
or ecommerce.
The evolution
of retail
2

In 2013, 94% of retail
sales were conducted
in brick-and-mortar
stores
In 2014, total ecommerce via
mobiles in Europe was
€23.77bn which is expected to
grow by 88.7% to €44.87bn
in 2015
In 2015, overall online
sales in Europe are
expected to grow by
18.4% to €185.39bn
18.4%
Online retailers in
2015 are expanding
14.2 times faster than
conventional outlets
However, while ecommerce is growing,
physical stores are continuing to bring in the
majority of sales with a global 2015 forecast
of $22.3tn (93.3%) compared to $1.6tn (6.7%)
ecommerce sales.
People still go to stores because they want
to see, touch and feel products before they
purchase them and for many, shopping
remains an exciting experience.
As such, physical shops are looking at new
ways to be innovative and interactive as they
constantly need to update their environment
to keep consumers’ attention and custom.
This need to re-think the strategy of the
traditional store experience has opened up
large opportunities for print within retail. High
quality, high value printed interior decoration
has become an easy way to refresh and create
a new look and experience for a customer
visiting a store. Similarly, more companies
are using pop-up shops as a successful way
to generate interest and eventually sales.
These temporary shops are able to implement
on-trend and exciting printed designs and
interiors that aren’t always a possibility within
retail stores.
In many cases, the store design has become
the foundation to the customer experience
and the abundance of materials available to
printers and the print applications that can
be generated within retail interior décor are
limited only by imagination.
Despite this being the digital age, what
retailers are slowly realising is that it’s not
about online or offline, but about being
everywhere that customers are, a concept
known as omnichannel or multichannel. Perhaps
this is why online stores are recognising the
need to open physical stores to accommodate
a consumer base that is used to traditional
shopping experiences.
94%
E-Commerce Is Not Eating Retail, Harvard Business Review, 2014
Online Retailing: Britain, Europe, US and Canada 2015, Centre for Retail Research, 2015
3.
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3

Consumers want a
seamless shopping
experience across
channels
4

This year, Amazon launched its first physical store in the US on
the campus of Purdue in Indiana University as part of its bid to
make things more convenient for shoppers. The “store” enables
students to pick up orders and make returns, something that is
otherwise only handled by postal and courier services.
Google also recently opened its first ever
branded shop called ‘The Google Shop’ in
London. The store atmosphere was meant
to mimic the un-cluttered look and feel of
the search engine’s site and, as a result,
designers and visual merchandisers created
an open space for consumers to play,
experiment, learn and, ultimately, buy the
company’s range of Android phones, tablets,
Chromebook laptops and Chromecast TV
services.
With the advent of digital, retail
has evolved and customer experience
remains key. A combination of digital
and print can be the most effective
way to create a multichannel approach
by bridging the gap between online
and offline whilst maintaining a high
value, permanent feel with the
benefit of flexibility.
5

Consumer
psychologies
Colour: Research has found that females
are more cautious when they see red sale
signs as they assume that it’s a trick, or
is encouraging them to buy something
they don’t want. Men, however, are more
trusting and view the signage as a helpful
addition to the store, pointing out exactly
where an offer is. It’s one of the primary
reasons as to why most women’s high street
fashion outlets don’t use red in their displays
and men’s shops do
Price: Consumers are also always looking
for a bargain. Retailers know that they don’t
want to pay more than they have to and, as
a result, the trick of prices ending in .99 took
off. However, while shoppers rely largely on
instinct to navigate the competitive market,
shopping is equally a learned skill, so as
consumers have caught on to the .99 trick,
retailers are now successfully selling more by
ending prices in .97
At the heart of the evolving retail landscape is consumer psychology and behaviour.
The way consumers select, access and evaluate items is different, especially across
age groups and from gender to gender.
Retailers are constantly tapping into the psyche of the consumer to encourage them on the
path to purchase. Whether it is enticing a consumer into a shop with the smell of freshly baked
bread or ensuring that they are using the correct colour in store displays, shops employ countless
methods to encourage a consumer to buy:
85% of shoppers
place colour as a
primary reason for
why they buy a
particular product
Men are less likely
(50.5%) to care about
being able to return
online purchases
in-store compared
to women (66.7%)
Men are less likely
to see offers
50.5%
66.7%
More women (20.3%)
are influenced by
social media in
making purchasing
decisions compared
to men (10.5%)
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Something for nothing: There is no denying
that consumers love to get things for free,
even when it isn’t something they have been
looking for or had any intention of buying.
Cosmetic companies have capitalised on
this with free miniature samples, while taste
testing stations are now common sights
in supermarkets. Similarly, printed store
vouchers that offer consumers a free sample
or a discount appeal to this sense of getting
something for nothing
Impulse to buy: When consumers browse
through aisles, they forget about what’s
actually needed and will act more on the
urge to buy something. In fact, 62% of
purchases are unplanned
Joy of opening something new: The
concept of “unboxing” or the experience
a customer has while opening or unwrapping
a product is, in some circumstances, as
exciting as the product itself. Apple is
a long-standing example of delivering
a great experience that welcomes the
purchaser to the product
Location, location, location: In online
retail, it’s no accident that the ‘buy now’
button is in the top right hand corner and
the search bar is in the top middle of the
web page. In the western world, where we
read from left to right, our brains see the
left-hand side as the past and the right-
hand side as the future. Likewise, when
you walk into a supermarket, consumers
are greeted by fruits and vegetables first
because they capture the shopper’s eye
and the combination of fresh scents and
natural imagery inspires a cheerful mood,
encouraging them to buy more
Peer pressure: One area that all retailers
agree on is that consumers are hugely
susceptible to the opinion of peers, even
if they’ve never met them. Research
found that 86% of US customers believe
ratings/reviews are essential to the
shopping experience
Just for me: Retailers and brands are
responding to customers wanting
products or services that are just for
them by giving them the opportunity
to buy products that are specifically
tailored to their tastes
Color psychology of consumer decision making, LinkedIn.com, 2014
Do Men and Women Really Shop Differently?, Small Business Trends, 2015
Do Men and Women Really Shop Differently?, Small Business Trends, 2015
Nine facts marketers should know about the psychology of shoppers, Marketing Magazine, 2014
Mass merchant shopper engagement study, POPAI, 2014
86% Of Consumers Believe Ratings/Reviews Are Essential To The Shopping Experience,
Retail Touch Points, 2015
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7

Print on demand is a popular proposition
that we expect to see grow further.
Our new store concept for Target in
Frankston, Melbourne features custom
T-shirt printing – shoppers can bring
in their chosen image on a USB stick
or smartphone and have it reproduced
on a Target Essentials T-shirt. Topshop
are doing something similar in-store.
Print has a huge part to pay in the
overall zeitgeist for customisation and
ownership, appealing to a new generation
of ‘consumer creators’.
Karen Dalziel, Group Graphics Director,
Dalziel and Pow
“
”
Retailers have adapted marketing
techniques to target all of our senses:
smell, taste, touch, sound and, most
prominently, sight. As a result, there is
an integral role for visual content like
printed interior decoration to create
a positive experience and feeling for
customers and Point of Sale (POS) which
adds to the positioning and promotion to
support a successful customer journey.
8

Questions to ask your business:
How can we help retailers, their marketers and designers bring
something new, creative and on trend to POS and promotion using
the latest printing technologies, applications and techniques?
How can we show our customers the print possibilities that will satisfy
these psychologies?
What new materials, printing styles and concepts can we show
businesses that would help inspire the improvement of merchandising
to overcome these challenges?
For example, what opportunities are there to help clients with
customised packaging printing solutions as they look into the
“unboxing” trend as part of their quest for brand loyalty?
There is a great trend for
more crafted, homespun or
heritage aesthetic in retail
that creates an opportunity
to emphasise the tactility
and material quality available
in print today.
Karen Dalziel, Group Graphics Director,
Dalziel and Pow
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9

The proliferation of PCs, laptops, mobiles
and tablets has given rise to the connected
consumer and a shift in buying behaviour.
Every online interaction, whether it’s
shopping apps, social media or online
browsing, has created a goldmine of
consumer data.
of global internet connected
consumers go online to research
a potential purchase, regardless
of whether they purchase online
or in-store
94%
14
14. 50% Of Online Shoppers Use Their Phones During Path To Purchase, Euromonitor Study Shows, Checkout, 2015
Connected
consumers
11

But gathering consumer data isn’t limited to
online tracking. The way in which consumers
interact with in-store displays has become
so vital to retailers that many of them
are adopting eye-tracking to identify any
changes in consumer behaviour and sales
figures. Using eye-tracking, retailers are
able to objectively measure how consumers
respond to POS material and collect
behavioural data that would not have been
possible to verbalise.
A study conducted in retail stores in the US
and Argentina by a leading retail solutions
provider, found that every single person
looked upwards to engage with overhead
promotional signage. In a separate study
conducted by the same organisation, the
findings indicated 85% of shoppers engaged
with product displays and fact tags, but
consistently ignored other materials.
While the value of Big Data and its potential
impact on the bottom line is increasingly
understood, omnichannel retail remains
the biggest trend as consumers today
want a seamless shopping experience
across websites, mobile apps and
brick-and-mortar shops.
15.
15
Eye-Tracking Insights for Enhancing Shopper Marketing, Perception Research Services, 2014
It’s not all about
data, interaction
with in-store displays
is equally important
12

This desire for a seamless customer journey
has led to the following phenomena:
Webrooming: Showrooming:
The practice of consumers researching
a product online before going to the
store to buy the item
The practice of shoppers visiting a store
to look at and test a product but then
purchasing the product online
13

Today, there is an array of technologies
available that help retailers bridge the
gap between online/mobile and offline
shopping, including Click & Collect and online
appointment booking systems. At the same
time, there are several solutions that enable
traditional offline retail to integrate with
digital, thus creating an opportunity for
print service providers to get involved.
A few examples of these include:
Many of these innovations benefit
from being incorporated into
printed materials including tags,
displays, decorations and posters.
But to encourage shoppers to come
close enough to engage with these
technologies, it is important that the
printed displays and signage are both
creative and attention-grabbing.
Beacons - A low-cost piece
of hardware – small enough
to incorporate into a wall, POS
display, poster or countertop,
that uses low-energy
Bluetooth® connections
to transmit messages and
prompts directly to
a smartphone or tablet
Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) -
The use of radio waves
to read and capture
information that is stored
in a tag attached
to an item
QR codes - A machine-
readable code consisting of
an array of black and white
squares, typically printed
on displays, products tags
or packaging. It is used
for storing URLs or other
information for reading by the
camera on a smartphone
International department store, John Lewis,
is an excellent example of a brand that
looks to innovation to help bridge the gap
between online and offline shopping with
its Any Shape, Any Fabric sofa service.
When it was initially launched, customers
could choose a card with a printed image
of the sofa style and a fabric sample and
when both were positioned near a screen,
an image of what the sofa would look like
was presented.
Innovation
14

Print and innovation
together bridge the
gap between online
and offline shopping
15

Where’s the
opportunity for print?
(traditional shops, print, advertising)
95% of retailers use
posters for in-store
communication
Posters are changed
every 4.5 weeks on
average
Home & Garden
retailers rely most
heavily on print with
an average of 7.3
posters on display
52% of consumers are
more likely to enter
a store if there is a
sale sign in the
window
Despite this being the age of digital, the majority of retail
revenue still comes from traditional shopping, providing
a huge opportunity for print in an omnichannel world.
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4.5
As part of the quest for a truly seamless customer journey, retailers need to provide
customers with the same experience online and in their physical stores. Correct design
and printed interior decoration can not only help a retailer achieve this, but it can sway
whether the shopper puts an extra item in the basket by creating a welcoming and
exciting atmosphere. Product packaging, in-store signage, POS displays and on shelf
promotions are more than just a pretty display shelf and the correctly placed product.
Retailers are also leveraging print technology to generate sales outside of the retail
environment through advertising and publishing including catalogues, flyers and
promotions and then linking them to digital and social channels by encouraging
sharing and cross media participation.
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Opportunity for Large format printers (UK), Euromonitor International, 2014
5 Tips For More Effective In-Store Marketing, Retail Minded, 2014
7.3
16

French womenswear brand Comptoir
des Cotonniers unveiled a mobile
shopping concept enabling customers
to instantly purchase items from
around 10,000 locations across
France. Printed displays were posted
on bus shelters, café tables, magazines
and even Uber cars were printed with
images of the brand’s products. It
allowed shoppers to scan codes in
order to buy the items displayed.
In some cases, retailers have been able
to successfully fuse digital with print
by using consumer generated content
(CCG) in their marketing campaigns.
European supermarket chain Lidl did
so with #LidlSurprises with in-store
displays featuring social content from
consumer tweets.
Similarly, UK online supermarket Ocado
has integrated social into its promotional
activities by printing customer tweets on
to its delivery vans.
17

Consumers are now, more than ever, given
huge amounts of choice and that makes
decision making increasingly difficult.
With more websites than ever devoted
to ecommerce, shoppers are now
familiar with using different platforms
for their purchases. A customer can
shop online, via mobile, in-store or even
a combination of the three with Click &
Collect. The choices are growing and this
is bringing more attention to retailers
becoming fully multichannel to manage
the growing demand for convenience
for customers.
However, it is important to remember
that in this digital age, print plays an
important role in today’s evolving and
profitable retail market where the
majority of sales still occur as the result
of some creative marketing and the
overall experience of shopping in-store.
It is this experience that is delivered
through traditional POS, the interior
decoration and even from the linking of
print to advanced in-store technologies.
Conclusion
19

Do your own research – the beauty
of retail is that it is completely open!
Go out and see what the retailers in your territory are doing
How are they decorating stores?
What concepts and materials are being used, what is printed?
How is POS being used and how is it used to influence customer
behaviour?
There are many retail and retail design exhibitions across Europe. They
are an excellent showcase of the opportunities for interior decoration,
merchandising, point of sale and for print
Look at your current capabilities
Which of your current services could be utilised in the retail sector?
What new areas or concepts are you able to deliver with the current
capabilities of your business?
Can you take advantage of key trends such as pop-up shops
or “un-boxing”
Which of your customers is already in this sector, or has links that
you can leverage?
With your new knowledge and Canon’s support, how can you show
them new possibilities?
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How can PSPs get started?
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What short term changes could you
implement that would help you start
to look at these opportunities
How can your skills and skills you can acquire, service the retail supply chains,
design agencies and marketing service providers? Consider how you might
partner with local design businesses, architects and packaging providers who
could give you access to retail opportunities. Or maybe other technology
providers?
Do you have in-house design and pre-press skills that align with the
opportunities – or how could these be repurposed to deliver value
for retail?
Are there new applications that you would like to offer?
Getting started
Knowledge is key – if you recognise areas where additional expertise would
be useful, an investment in training or applications development, however
modest, could pay large dividends
Test the water – Start small and see what offers you could make locally to
support retailers engaging with their customers. The learning experience
could be key to developing further in these markets
Take the proactive approach – What showcase materials or samples do you
need in your portfolio to highlight what you can do for retail?
Get creative – Can you find an innovative niche that sits perfectly within
your businesses capabilities and services the needs of your customers?
Talk to Canon – Our product specialists, application experts and account
managers are here to help. They represent one of the largest wide format
portfolios in the industry, from UV flatbed printers and flatbed cutting
systems to water based inkjet and unique CrystalPoint and single-pass
technology systems. We can help you learn the skills to push the
boundaries of print and materials to create an outstanding offering for your
existing or potential retail customers.
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For more industry insights, why not
subscribe to our magazine for the
print community, Think Digital, at
www.canon-europe.com/thinkdigital
You can also follow our conversation
on Twitter @CanonProPrint

Think Retail - print's role in the retail market of today

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