1. PSFK presents
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
PSFK recently published an analysis of the Future of Retail. The
80-page report was created to explore this future from the
perspective of brands, shoppers, retailers, and communities. It
was also produced as stimulus for the creative community and
we encourage brands, agencies, and individuals to respond with
their thoughts about the Future of Retail.
The following ideas are from Wieden+Kennedy New York. The
agency has responded with three ideas; a piece of technology, a
concept and an experience.
Request a free copy of the complete report here:
www.psfk.com/future-of-retail
CONTACT FOR mORE INFORmATION
Erik Hanson
erik.hanson@wk.com
www.psfk.com 1

2. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
CONCEPT 1
SPACE BUILDER
A mobile scAnner App thAt Allows users to creAte their own
cAtAlogs And custom views As they shop.
Throughout the Future of Retail report there were many examples of retailers
trying to combine the tactility of the physical retail experience with the
convenience and customization of digital. And there are a lot of different
tools and technologies coming together to try to make this connection
in different ways: RFID, GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometers, iPads, kiosks and
shopping robots, just to name a few. It seems almost too obvious that a
piece of technology that is already the backbone of almost every retailer’s
inventory and sales systems could be the easiest solution.
The lowly bar code, something that has been around for 50 years, is proving
to be an exciting frontier for connecting people, products and content. But
while apps like Stripey Lines and Sticky Bits are finding really interesting
ways of letting consumers access and share content through a social network
of random objects, there aren’t many retailers using this most basic of
technologies as a platform for creating more engaging in-store shopping
experiences. What if there were a way for shoppers to work around the clutter
of shelves and the distractions of packaging and displays to able to see the
products they are shopping for in contextual environments that they create?
This concept is the Space Builder. With this app (designed with furniture and
home décor retailers in mind), users could scan barcodes of products using
their smart phone while they shop.
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3. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
Each scan would instantly display catalog photography and details of that
product (360 degree QTVRs for the more ambitious retailer), but the scans
would also be collected into a real-time personal catalog that could then be
sent to large in-store kiosk displays (or an online gallery to view from your
home PC).
Items could then be arranged and matched by color, category, fabrics,
designer, etc., and assembled into a 3D room model. Other product
suggestions could be made to users based on the items they scanned or the
rooms they create, and an in-store locator could direct the customer to the
aisles that contain these complementary products. It combines the benefits
of physically touching and trying with the customization and control of online
shopping.
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4. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
CONCEPT 2
SKU - THE SERENDIPITY STORE
A store thAt sells A monthly collection of 10 mystery objects
chosen by A guest curAtor.
In a world of Instant Show and Tell (link) where retailers are encouraging
people to publish their “likes,” post their purchase history and share their
dressing room decisions with their Facebook friends, it’s easy to envision
a near future in which retailers will be able to personalize just about
everything to perfectly suit a shopper’s preferences. And while this kind of
hyper-personalization could represent great value, it is also slowly killing
serendipity – that thing that used to make shopping fun. So perhaps the
biggest opportunity for a retailer of the future to differentiate will be to bring
back some surprise. What if there were a store that believed so much in the
serendipity of stuff that the very products it sells were kept a mystery?
This concept is called SKU — a store dedicated to discovery that sells 10
mystery items each month, all selected by a guest curator.
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5. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
Each box could be sold for the same reasonably low price (perhaps $20).
Curators could include musicians, actors, architects, designers, comedians –
anybody with an interesting point of view, a respected opinion or a story
to tell. It’s kind of like StumbleUpon for retail. The premise here, as inspired
by Rob Walker’s Significant Objects project, is that the value of any object
comes from more than simply the materials it’s made of… it can come from
stories, points of view, celebrity associations, even the simple experience of
this kind of purchase.
One month Nick Cave might introduce you to a CD you’ve never heard, a
brand of Vegemite™ that actually tastes good, an autographed copy of his
script for The Proposition, or a pop-up book about international spacecraft.
And the next month, Wes Anderson might introduce you to his favorite
Japanese horror movie, or the world’s best bicycle pump.
While technology will inevitably help us all become better buyers of the stuff
we like, hopefully we’ll always have interesting ways to discover some stuff we
never knew we liked in the first place.
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6. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
CONCEPT 3
SQFT - A PERSONAL RETAIL SPACE
A little piece of retAil in your home thAt Acts As A virtuAl stAge
for merchAndise.
There were a couple of really interesting overall themes in the Future of
Retail report that led us to this concept. One was the portability of the retail
experience — whether that’s portable fixtures within a space, hitting the
road with a portable store, or the technology to create a retail experience
virtually anywhere. The other was the emergence of new, unexpected ways
the mobile phone is being used to close the sale. So we thought it would be
interesting to see what you could create by breaking apart the conventional
retail space into more portable pieces but keeping them connected through a
mobile experience.
SQFT is a 12-inch-by-12-inch stage that would allow consumers to turn a little
corner of their home into one square foot of personal retail space.
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7. PSFK presents
Wieden+Kennedy new York
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Co n s u lti n g
The SQFT surface would feature an augmented-reality glyph so that when it
was viewed through a mobile phone or webcam, a user would see the item
currently for sale hovering above the stage. Every day one item would appear
for sale (similar to woot.com), exclusively available through SQFT. You could
either click to buy, or just enjoy the virtual view.
The concept would work particularly well for retailers of unique collectables
like Kid Robot, which could feature limited-edition Dunnies and other vinyl
toys where one-of-a-kind is the name of the game. Or a collection of retailers
could “share the stage” to cross-promote a curated collection of objects.
SQFT forces the blurring of the lines between physical objects and digital
experiences — something the retail industry in particular is very interested
in helping to pioneer. And even if you never decide to buy something, it still
makes one hell of a conversation piece.
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