Why We Buy author Paco Underhill and RichRelevance founder David Selinger to host industry salon that illuminates the consumer trends and behavior that will define this year’s holiday shopping season
San Francisco, CA – Sept. 18, 2012 –– RichRelevance®, the leading provider of dynamic personalization for the world’s largest retailers and brands, today announced “The Future of Shopping” in San Francisco on September 18. Hosted by David Selinger, former head of Amazon’s personalization R&D team and CEO of RichRelevance, and Paco Underhill, retail expert and best-selling author of the books Why We Buy, Call of the Mall and What Women Want, the salon brings together influencers and top retail brands for a fresh perspective on the changing ways that consumers research and buy products – and how they can adapt [react]. More information on the event, which runs from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. PST at the City Club of San Francisco, is available here.
A decade after the rise of e-commerce, today’s mobile technologies and social media applications have contributed to a convergence of consumer demand and technology.
Consumers now expect constant connectivity and interactivity from retail brands and retailers must embrace omni-channel retailing, an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping.
Omni-channel means seeing things from a consumer’s point of view, not from the comfort of your own business boundaries.
It means interacting with customers via their three channels of exploration: social, mobile and local, at every stage of the purchasing process.
The seminal invention of our era has been the mobile phone. All across the world it is fundamentally changing the rules of politics, commerce and manners. The impact of the mobile phone on politics has been profound. From Tiananmen Square twenty years ago, to the recent Arab Spring, the phone as a tool of modern networking has caught government by surprise. The immediacy of textings and postings have stripped the abilities of modern censors to monitor, much less control. It has given new meaning to “one man, one vote.” In that sense, it is the ultimate expression of democracy.
Across many parts of the developing world, the mobile phone is at the center of a new currency, which supersedes banking and coins and paper. That currency is minutes. It is easy to transport, and cheap to render. It lends itself to both to small transactions and complex trading. It is used by African farmers and by Japanese families that distribute the allowances to their teenage children in a form that they can monitor. That evolution has caught banks by surprise. Is the wallet and the credit card due for the endangered species list?
Paco Underhill, retail expert and author, reveals the influences behind purchasing decisions and RichRelevance CEO David Selinger explains how his technology for retailers is staying relevant with the emergence of mobile, local and social.
Q: You’re the author of the global bestselling book ‘Why We Buy’. How did you become an expert in the psychology and science of shopping?
Envirosell, the firm I founded, is the principal testing agency for prototype stores and bank branches in the world. We have studied shopping and circulation patterns for more than 25 years.
Q: In your research what three things most often influence a purchasing decision?
First is the perception of value: is what I am considering worth the amount of money I am being asked to spend? Second, how does what I am buying fit into both the needs I have, or anticipated impact I am looking for? And third, is the experience of shopping one that complements both the goods I am considering, and my concept of self?
When it comes to collaboration between retailers and brands, uneasy tension has been the status quo. For example, the fight for shelf space between retailer’s private-label brands and CPG branded products brings out such thoughts as “co-opetition.”
But according to a recent article in Variety, an unprecedented level of deal-making with Hollywood studios has swept up not just e-tailers like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, but also traditional retailers like Target, Walmart and Toys R Us “in the battle to nail down exclusive product pacts.”