Five lessons on the future of retail

Five lessons on the future of retail

Evolve or become irrelevant

Elisa made a really good point in her response to the question of whether Hong Kong retail is booming.

Unfortunately, the majority of mainstream retailers in our city have become too comfortable – thanks to years of being propped up by mainland tourist spending.

We’ve paid little attention or investment in innovation. Hong Kong used to be “ahead of the game” with the launch of the Octopus card payment system but soon rested on our laurels and we’ve unfortunately been playing catch-up ever since, while other regional players such as China and Singapore lead the pack.

Don’t be afraid of failure

Perhaps it’s a Hong Kong-condition but the talk brought to light our acute fear of failure.

Very few companies are doing anything challenging or risky in terms of retail. This could be attributed to the eye-watering rent in the city – a major deterrent to experimenting.

Layer experiences to tell a richer story

I was inspired by the focus on experiences as told by Elisa and Yardley, pointing to the relatively new Tom Dixon store on Hollywood Road, Central (Hong Kong) – part-boutique, part-café with a focus on customer experience and not completely reliant on technology. The store manages to create multiple brand touch points for customers without ‘hard selling’. The rush shoppers feel when given the opportunity to browse, smell and feel products never gets boring.

The discussion also brought to light how vital staff are, given the frontline nature of their roles as brand ambassadors. Great sales assistants who have been properly trained to tell a story about each product in an interesting way will always win fans.  

Yardley, with her own small business, seemed to be breaking the mold by attempting to provide her customers with a multi-sensorial approach to brand and lifestyle in her pop-up stores. The panel felt that the majority of companies in Hong Kong are still too focused on offline and online experiences as separate constructs – with little success in seamlessly bridging the two platforms.

Embrace and learn from disruption

Other world cities are beating us in the digital retail space. Simon from BT predicted that it will likely take a major player to disrupt the local market before we (in Hong Kong) take things seriously. While the Mainland is running full-steam ahead with mobile payment apps and bringing their experiences seamlessly across platforms, we need to be open to trying, failing and improving fast.

Some values like convenience will never go out of fashion.

Making a spontaneous morning purchase through an app then expecting the same product to arrive at our office by lunch shouldn’t be seen as a treat in a city as small as ours – yet it is still regarded as such and the mindset of seeing buy and collect services as a ‘value add’ or pitching it as a premium service needs to change - brands need to address this or run the risk of losing to more nimble competitors.  

Creative leasing can be done

While not all landlords in Hong Kong are open to transient leases for pop-up stores, we are seeing some of the bigger landlords - such as Times Square and K11 - increasingly taking steps to activate residual space and vacant units by bringing on retailers on shorter leasing periods. This creates a win-win situation for smaller retailers, who are able to test and bring new brands and concepts to market.

The panel also recognised the role landlords can play in being more flexible - but this works both ways – finding the right landlord who connects with your brand will also help tremendously on the negotiating table!


By Amanda Cheung, director, marketing and communications Asia, Grosvenor

Want to discover more about the future of retail? Watch our interview with the speakers on the impact of technologies, such as Amazon, on traditional retailers:

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