A shop is no longer a shop. Or at least the traditional idea of one – a static space with large plate glass windows, a checkout and shelves of shiny products – is on the wane as big-name retailers try creative ways to get consumers through the door.
Apple stores offer coffee, Patagonia hosts yoga classes and Nike lets you try trainers out on their in-store basketball court.
As Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at global payment company Adyen, put it in a recent sector report: “In a world where anything can be a shop, and a shop can be anything, how do you evolve to serve today’s shoppers?”
If this year’s FT 1000 ranking of Europe’s fastest growing companies is anything to go by, the answer lies online, or with a calibrated mix of web and bricks-and-mortar sales.
