Insights

Excerpt from Glossy article
Written by Jessica Schiffer

It’s no longer enough to personalize beauty products with a shopper’s name or favorite color. Today’s consumers are seeking out brands that allow them to customize everything about a product, down to its formulation.

To satisfy this, a crop of brands across the cosmetics, hair-care and skin-care categories have popped up in the last few years to offer bespoke products, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. A report last year from GlobalData found that a growing number of consumers, then at 61 percent, found the concept highly appealing.

“The push toward customization is linked closely to the beauty space’s desire to appeal to a diverse and global clientele,” said Maya Mikhailov, CMO and co-founder of retail app developer GPShopper. “Standards of beauty are shifting from traditional norms, and consumers are increasingly demanding beauty products that not only offer more choice, but also help them express their individuality.”

2018 will be all about emerging brands that deliver unique and authentic experiences to their customers. Although many are digital natives, they are actively pursuing expansion strategies which include pop-ups and permanent storefronts. Whether it be Parisian style, sneaker culture, gender fluidity, authenticity or - my favorite theme - sustainability, I’ve uncovered a stellar list of innovative retailers to watch this year. 

Stadium Goods

Perhaps you have heard about the billion-dollar sneaker resale market? Limited edition sneakers are the must-have of stylish workwear and streetwear. In today’s workplace, an in-demand pair of kicks has become the new necktie, but so much more modern and comfortable. Whether you’re a sneakerhead or not, Stadium Goods is your one stop shop for highly sought-after streetwear and sneakers. While the sneaker resale market is quite saturated, the two-year-old marketplace is booming. Though Stadium Goods has its fair share of competitors, it has a great handle on both its brick and mortar and mobile strategy. Stadium Goods has two locations in New York City and recently launched its first app. If you haven’t been so lucky this Yeezy Season, head on over to Stadium Goods – you’ll be sure to find the latest Blue Tint colorway.

Let’s be honest, NRF can be extremely overwhelming. To make it easier for you, I’ve rounded up a list of innovative technology players from this year’s NRF floor – most of which are new to the market. Consider these companies and their services as you plan your 2018 retail strategy. As we all know, if you aren’t innovating, you’re allowing your competition to eventually put you out of business. 

Retailers, take a peek:

Pricer

Electronic Shelf Labeling is the new “it” technology. Pricer is the only company to offer the three fundamentals to store digitization: product positioning, device tracking and universal product/label flash. Best Buy is one of many major retailers to sign on with Pricer for their Electronic Shelf-Edge solutions. Nicole Nelson, Vice President at Best Buy said, “having electronic shelf labels in place allows employees to focus on serving customers instead of changing paper price tags.” In addition to the ESL solutions, Pricer has also combined wayfinding/product locator for large retail storefronts. Pricer’s wayfinding technology easily detects the physical location of shelf tags – for example, if you happen to move an item or tag from one aisle to another, its system will automatically update the location on your store map.

Article in WWD
Written by Faye Brookman

Beauty has been a laggard in adopting mobile. That's about to change.

Beauty has been slower than many other categories to embrace the mobile mentality, according to Maya Mikhailov, cofounder and chief marketing officer of GPShopper. 

“With the exception of Sephora, beauty has been a laggard in the mobile curve,” she said. That’s about to change, according to Mikhailov. Maximizing mobile is a component of three trends she identified that will impact beauty retailers in 2018:

The Merging of Music and Lifestyle Trends With Personal Care

Music and beauty have a lot in common, as exemplified by makeup artist Pat McGrath’s use of Spotify to launch her own brand. “McGrath is one of the makeup artists who pioneered social media. Using Spotify as a popular mobile service with a famous makeup artist [her products are sold on Spotify’s Maggie Lindemann shop] serves to be a powerful combination of music, social and merchandise,” Mikhailov said. “There are more opportunities for future musicians to work with makeup brands.

Article in PYMNTS.com

Retail isn’t all about taking people’s money. Today, it’s also about telling a story and building an experience that makes customers want to shop with the brand again.

So, one might think it would be a no-brainer for luxury brands, which have such a legacy presence in the market, to be all over the latest storytelling modes, with exciting new ways to draw consumers into their rich and storied history.

Yet luxury brands have been slower than most other retailers to embrace digital innovation – for storytelling or for anything else. GPShopper found that only 3 percent of luxury brand’s revenue was coming from digital storefronts back in 2010, and that percentage is only expected to climb to about 12 percent by 2020.

GPShopper, which develops mobile apps for retailers, has an idea why the technology uptake has been so slow in this market, as well as a vision for a brave new luxury retail world – and a plan to help make it happen.

“Luxury brands have a rich heritage and history of storytelling,” said GPShopper CMO Maya Mikhailov. “They saw technology as antithetical to that. Now, they are increasingly realizing that their customers are on digital platforms using digital tools. If they’re not there, they’re losing out to other brands who are. We believe 2018 will be a pivotal year for luxury to embrace digital technology.”