Retail becomes part of the entertainment industry

Retail is shifting more and more towards worlds of experience. Shopping is entertainment – in short: shoppertainment. We are landlords ourselves and create such worlds of experience with a mix of retail, gastronomy, healthcare and cultural offerings. We are virtually competing with other experience destinations such as amusement parks as ‘Europa-Park’.

The role of the Breuninger stores will change even more radically. We are creating more and more spaces that are no longer primarily focused 1 to 1 on productivity and sales. Everything about the shopping experience involves a variety of experiences and we want to invite customers to linger, inspire them, arouse their curiosity and surprise them. Our stores are not purely transactional spaces, nor are they purely showrooms. They are brand carriers of the “Breuninger” brand and contribute massively to customer loyalty.

Retail is a point of entertainment and must continue to develop into an important destination for leisure activities. This means that the shape of cities must also change. For this to succeed, I suggest opening on Sundays so that people can shop and stroll when they have time.

The older generation probably has a completely different view of this than the younger generation. For the older generation, entertainment is mostly something that takes place in a physical space. For the younger generation, it’s something they can hold in their hands. It’s the cell phone, it’s in there where they can join all the groups; and in there the events take place these days […]. But the young people still go to stores, if only to meet with friends. But when they do and actually buy something, it is different from what we imagine. They see pictures on Instagram and then they want to be part of it.

Shopping has become a leisure activity and is no longer purely about meeting needs. Pure transaction business or need satisfaction is increasingly moved to online platforms….if it’s supposed to be fun, you go to the city center.

Entertainment, for me, is the origin of retail. Marketplaces originally were entertainment areas in which social interactions happened and that build and maintained relationships. Even today, retail has to bring people together. If people are spending their time, you have to offer them added value. However, retail has increasingly become a warehouse or a distribution center. It was not demanded otherwise because that was how success was measured. Today, retail has to create a setting in which people feel comfortable. At the same time, it needs to show attitude. Retail has to be looked at more broadly, because without considering sustainability it is no longer possible. So it is not just performing the show and providing the entertainment, but retail also has a teaching mission. We have to get to the point where we sustainably use and re-use more and do not consume everything. And we all – including retail – have to face up to this responsibility.

I think theses 2 and 8 fit together relatively well and also reflect the trends in our industry. It is important to personally connect with the customer on site, to entertain the customer, and that shopping then works as a side effect. To achieve this the own brand needs to be way more present in the customer’s mind. This requires retailers to work much more intensively with data.