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Unpacking the future of retail: David Smollan and Rory Sutherland
Unpacking the future of retail: David Smollan and Rory Sutherland
Digital has transformed the nature of shopping, but that doesn’t mean that physical retail is going away.

So how do we bridge physical and digital in a smarter way? And how can retailers create a more convenient, experiential and sustainable way of shopping that brings back those little moments of joy to the consumer?

Listen to retail expert, David Smollan and behavioural science guru, Rory Sutherland unpack the future of retail by asking – from a behavioural science point of view – how physical and digital experiences will merge going forward. Find out:

  • Why browsing a store and expert curation still have a role to play;
  • If self-service means no service;
  • Why the high-street means high-margin;
  • Why digital retailers seem more organised around data… but aren’t ;
  • Did Benjamin Franklin invent direct marketing?
  • How to add value rather than subtract pain;
  • About framings role in customer experience;
  • The line between preferential and differential treatment ;
  • What is the one-click physical version of physical checkout? (And why click-and-collect shouldn’t be the poor man’s online shopping solution..)
  • If there really is too much retail space;
  • Why loyalty programmes aren’t only about rewards, but rather recognition;
  • Are brands simply paving the cow’s path with technology?
  • And the ridiculous concept of Build-a-Bear.

We assume the future of retail is ‘Amazonification’… but is it? If anything, it turns out that there is a lot to consider for both brick-and-mortar and online going forward. Rediscover the virtues of all different kinds of retail, including conventional shopping, with Smollan and Sutherland in this thought-provoking episode of O Behave, a monthly behavioural science podcast from Ogilvy Consulting.