Tag Archives: pittsburgh

Retail’s Interactive Experience Future

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Future-of-Retail

It is Christmas day, we’ve all had our fill of coffee, cookies, and wrapping paper as we tore through the gifts from loved ones. My most valuable gift this year was a renewed subscription to the Harvard Business Review, which I would like to share some of the great knowledge I’ve garnered through my perusing of this publication.

We know tomorrow, the Next Day, most stores will flocked to much like Black Friday with all of the after holiday sales. For retailers, this is the biggest time of year, and though superficially great for the economy, how are the locally owned stores going to compete the rest of the year?

I have worked in wholesale, resale retail, and forward-thinking collaborative retail projects where buying can be seasonal or mostly inexplicable in layman’s terms. Most of the things we buy, we don’t need, and in an atmosphere such as is unknowingly to be in 2013’s revealing of our fiscal cliff for-certain catastrophe, most consumers are looking for deals.

This may not always be the case though, if your store is selling a style or mind-set, in the way that Apple does. In this HBR article, Ron Johnsonn, the former VP of Retail for Apple describes that their main selling point that gets folks in the store to buy is the experience.

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Part of that experience is the mobile check-out abilities of tablets and smartphones that allow the customer to have a face-to-face relationship with the sales clerk. This means small stores need to take after the likes of Target, who’s mobile application and coupon center is by far the slickest I’ve seen, and integrate technology in their operations. Again, another great HBR Article describes just how and why this should occur.

Want to see deep in to the future? It’s not too far off in this developing virtual supermarket in Korea. The technological abilities to organize, superimpose, and assist decision making for customers with smart technology has just begun.

Retail-Future

With all that being said, when tomorrow comes and you’re in a big box store searching for the super-holiday-end deals, check out the mobile devices, photography equipment, display ideas, and convenience appliances that would enhance your customer’s experience so that you save while you expand your sales plan.

The Link: Public Transportation and Business Corridors Pt. 1

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Check out this article!

Pittsburgh is a great city and has many wonderful assets like, parks, bridges, sports arenas, colleges, shopping, cute neighborhoods, low cost of living, you get the picture. Now, Pittsburgh’s want to use its’ existing assets, like the Port Authority, could be a little big greater which make them that much more wonderful.

One of the biggest issues besides the political nature of a government run public transportation [PT] system, is its’ ridership. The Port Authority and the catch 22 situation of expanding bus routes or investing in other modes of transportation come down to this: if there is no destination, there is no need for a route. On the flip-side, business corridors may think: there is no route, what will happen to my destination?

Having lived and worked and visited other transportation systems in US and foreign cities, Pittsburgh could use some upgrades and improvements. Yet the only way an investment will work is if the people use it. I’ve been a big advocate of light rail, yet in this highlighted article above, an expert states this may not be a viable type of transport for this city. He also highlights how the lack of riders on a bus will actually increase the carbon foot print in comparison to the energy used for a single rider in a car.

Look in Pt. 2 for additional considerations and information regarding our need to utilize the existing assets our city has that will benefit you, your community, and the world as a whole.