Even people who never liked shopping, at least for now, are enthusiastic about visiting shops. This could be a big moment for retail to score some points with consumers.Already we’ve seen a healthy uptick in store sales as retail in key markets reopens and as nations start to move away from stringent pandemic measures. Globally, in-store sales rebounded by 8.2 percent in 2021, to $21.094 trillion, more than was spent in 2019, according to an Insider Intelligence report. It forecasts that brick-and-mortar will grow between 2.6 percent and 3.4 percent by 2025. Physical retail sales ($702.17 billion) are predicted to top e-commerce ( $603.68 billion), despite a slower growth rate.Still, in the face of the rapid expansion of e-commerce, not just in terms of the number of people shopping online, but also the investment e-commerce platforms have made to boost the customer experience (most notably fast and, usually, free delivery) there remains the question as to what the real prospects are for physical retail.“I think physical stores, despite all claims to the contrary, are far from dead. In many ways, we're going to see a real revitalization, probably driven by two primary things. First, there's a lot of pent up demand. So fundamentally people have a real desire to get back to real life experiences. And secondary, retailers have sat on two years of an inability to do anything interesting or innovative. So you basically have a pipeline of two years of ideas that never had an opportunity to be activated,” said Jeff Roberts, Head of Futures at JumpInnovation! in London. Getting It Right or Wrong?Right now retail is divided between those that are ‘most likely to succeed’ and those that will continue to struggle - even as consumers head back to stores.A lot of the innovation has been coming from mass marketers who have revamped the customer experience. Target, for example, has been bringing in more concessions and brand partnerships to widen its selection for customers. Walmart has done the same. “These stores are working to offer products at an appropriate price point for what customers there to do, and to make it as easy for them as possible. When you look at more tired department stores, they haven't really thought about what their customers are there to do -and then match that to what they offer. I think that's where the magic happens, when you are able to provide the products and experience that your customer wants,” said Mr. Roberts. Finding the Right Data to Get Actionable InsightsWe often talk about the value of knowing your customer, but few companies really do the necessary legwork to thoroughly understand who exactly shops in their stores - and why. Without this knowledge, they are taking potshots and hoping to hit the target. Success is now more a matter of chance than design.Most companies talk about capturing data and using big data to better understand their customers, however most either are not doing this or not doing it very effectively. “The key to getting meaningful data is to start by asking what problem are you ultimately trying to solve? One of the best things that most retailers could do is to focus on asking better questions, and then figure out what is the appropriate data to match that. “There are also interesting opportunities around tracking what customers do in your stores using eye tracking, linger time and things to track flow through the store. It’s about having an experimental mindset. However, the place to start is by asking better questions in the first place.” How Costco Uses Less Data to Get Better InsightsIn addition to not asking the right questions, there’s also the issue of data overload. “Not only do we often have too much data, but most of the time, it's about things we don't care about. It's things that are easily tracked. The Head Office will send a report template to the store level and the store manager spends most of his or her time filling out said form and sending it back with no real understanding of what it is used for or how it gets put into practice. You end up with just reams and reams of information, but no real insight.“Companies like Costco, for example, who have a really simple shopper mission model for store managers. Their idea is that they build out a view of what your store looks like, and they compare you to similar stores in your wider network. Then they see where there are opportunities to do things better. That's a really clever model, because it's focused on small, simple, actionable activity versus just saying ‘look at that, it’s 20 percent from last year’ without being able to answer why.”Most retailers compare themselves with competitors, which might not be the best measuring stick.“Most retailers will align themselves on a like-for-like sales model, looking at what they are selling in this category versus their competitor down the street. The key thing they should be asking is ‘What's the mission that brought people to our store versus another store?’ And then looking for points of differentiation on that mission based model. It's about using data to find opportunities for advantage.” Rethinking the Store to Serve the Customer One of the biggest disconnects between consumers and retailers is when company missions are defined independent of really diving deep into what their specific customers want from them. “There are two things that I would look at here. One would be around trying to understand more of what your actual customer does, and taking a realistic view on why you actually exist. Every company has a view of why they see themselves existing, but it is not always an accurate reflection of how their customers see them. Once you understand what exactly your customers want - in terms of products and in store experience - you are better positioned to create a winning experience for them.“Creating experiences in the store that match what the customer expects, or how the customer uses your product or product sets, makes your store a much better fit for them. There’s no one size fits all here. It’s about getting a deeper understanding of what your customer does, what they're coming to your store to do, and what you could potentially invoke them to do while they're there. Then try to bring as much of that experience to life in an interactive and an exciting manner, making it as immersive an experience as possible.”“The second thing is to actively experiment with various aspects of your stores. The past two years have unshackled retailers from traditional ways of doing things. So really thinking about everything from simple things like what the planogram looks like for the store? Where are we putting things? Do we group by occasion? Do we group by events or group by category? And running in a more deliberate way? How could we organize this space? How can we organize the flow through? Could we match that particular category set in a way that actually creates delight for the customer? Ultimately, that's what you should be doing when they come into a retail environment, in the first place?”Ultimately it comes down to the idea of ‘mission’. Not only what brought someone into your store today, but understanding what that customer does when they are in your store - and then experimenting with ways to improve the customer experience, which will lead to increased sales.