albert Chan
Introduction
The Coresight Research team attended and participated in RICE 2022 (the Retail Innovation Conference & Expo), which was held on May 11–12, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. For nearly a decade, RICE has been a go-to destination for retail thought leaders to collaborate and explore how emerging trends will impact the next generation of retail and fuel future growth plans.
In this report, we present our key insights across four major themes that emerged during multiple sessions and conversations during the conference.
RICE 2022: Key Insights
Livestreaming Is Going Mainstream
The power of livestreaming lies in its facilitation of personal, authentic connections with consumers. Coresight Research shared exclusive early access to our latest livestreaming survey report with the attendees of RICE. Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, discussed one of the report’s major findings: over 86% of retailers globally are already using livestreaming as a sales or promotional channel, with most of them launching their livestreaming initiatives in the 12 months prior to the survey.
- Look out for our new report, entitled Understanding the Livestreaming Opportunity: Global Retail Executive Survey Findings, which is sponsored by livestreaming platform Firework.
Based on our conversations from the conference floor and during different sessions, the momentum in livestream shopping is every bit as real as our survey findings indicate. Firework’s booth was buzzing with activity during the event. The company’s solution offers brands a way to host livestreaming sessions on their own websites, something which only 23% of retailers active in livestreaming are doing today, according to our proprietary survey findings. Retailers should focus on driving consumers to their own livestream channels to build meaningful relationships, rather than relying solely on external social media platforms.
Traditionally, video-based marketing has been expensive to produce and relied on celebrities to generate attention. However, with livestreaming, the only technical expertise required is access to a mobile phone. In fact, using celebrities in livestreams may potentially harm a brand’s image by generating an air of inauthenticity. Most importantly, as Meagan Johnson from Jane.com highlighted, livestreaming offers higher conversion rates and greater returns on advertising spend than more traditional channels.
- Read more Coresight Research coverage of livestreaming e-commerce.
Right to left: Vincent Yang, CEO and Co-founder of Firework; Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research; and Meagan Johnson, SVP of Marketing at Jane.comSource: Coresight Research[/caption]
Understanding the Customer Journey Revolves Around Storytelling
Weinswig hosted the RICE media breakfast on May 11 alongside Ken Fenyo, President of Research and Advisory at Coresight Research. While the topics discussed ranged from car commerce to product indication to augmented reality, the focus remained on the overarching importance of storytelling in understanding the customer journey.
While retail players often focus on measurable results to determine the success or failure of a given initiative, long-term customer relationships depend on the ability to connect with consumers in ways that are meaningful to their lives. For this reason, retailers have been investing heavily in store experiences—including the professionalization of store associates to become subject matter experts who offer more than just operational support. In Japan, for example, many store associates have taken to livestreaming to share their expertise, becoming minor influencers in their own right for the authenticity and personalization offered by the livestream format. By utilizing stores in this way, the retail experience goes beyond the four walls of brick-and-mortar locations or a web browser.
Storytelling also enables brands to facilitate strong communities, based on genuine common interests. Weinswig and Fenyo discussed the link between fan groups and retail—referencing the extension of film or music fan groups to retailers and products that we have seen in popular culture in recent years. This connection between fandom and retail adds another layer to the dimension of storytelling—especially as brands and retailers look to forge a path into the virtual-first shift driven by Web 3.0.
[caption id="attachment_147561" align="aligncenter" width="550"]
The Coresight Research team at RICE 2022 (left to right): Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder; Steven Winnick, Senior Analyst; Ken Fenyo, President of Research and Advisory; Mike Jordan, Head of Custom Research; Charlene Lu, SEO Consultant; and Mara Dosso, Senior Events ManagerSource: Coresight Research[/caption]
The Metaverse Should Be on Every Retail Roadmap
The metaverse was a key topic among speakers and attendees at RICE this year. While the metaverse still seems an abstract concept to some, brands and retailers do not need to be experts in blockchain and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to begin planning their metaverse strategies.
If the early days of e-commerce taught retail players anything, it is the need to be where customers are before they get there, otherwise even the most carefully thought-out loyalty program won’t prevent them from jumping ship if competitors are already there. By wading into the space early, retailers can set up affinities that will encourage consumers loyalty wherever they transact.
Roxanne Baretto-Iyer, Vice President of Global Consumer Engagement at Clinique, illustrated this importance for attendees by sharing Clinique brand’s journey into the metaverse with a newly minted NFT. The initiative rewarded three Clinique customers with a decade’s worth of free products, along with ownership of a limited NFT. Baretto-Iyer stressed the importance of not only understanding Clinique’s customers before launching the NFT, but also lining up internal support from the firm’s operational departments. This resulted in an increase in loyalty program signups, along with a 60% increase in time spent with the brand online per customer. Furthermore, the company’s HR department reported an uptick in recruitment with many prospective employees citing the NFT launch as a reason they became interested in the company. This low-risk foray into the metaverse illustrates the virtuous cycle of brand engagement opportunities that will be available to retailers and brands in the Web 3.0 era, putting commerce firmly at the center of our lives and societies.
- Read Coresight Research’s coverage of the metaverse.
Gaming Shows Us What Lies Ahead in the Metaverse
In her keynote speech, Cathy Hackl, Chief Metaverse Officer at metaverse agency Futures Intelligence, stated that while the metaverse is still in its infancy, it is importance to note that the spiritual parent of this emerging ecosystem is the world of video games and gaming culture. Metaverse commerce started in the gaming worlds of Fortnite and Roblox, with their emphasis on driving revenue growth via in-game purchases of digital assets using specialized in-game currencies. In fact, over $100 billion was spent on gaming platforms for in-game purchases in 2021, according to financial services firm Citibank, with spending set to reach $13 trillion by 2030.
Gaming also informs how people approach their identities in the metaverse. Digital skins and interactions with virtual icons are already commonplace across many gaming platforms and they will be the primary way consumers interact with brands and with each other in the metaverse. For this reason, many retailers are now recruiting game developers to their teams, while “Hologram Stylist” roles are becoming a feature in marketing teams for many brands.
Hackl stated that in the metaverse, we are all world builders. Whether consumers come from a gaming background or not, the identity they build in the Metaverse will be separate from but connected to the physical world in ways that we are only now starting to understand. Brands need to identify new ways to engage with customers’ evolving identities in these virtual platforms in order to succeed. That means bringing on more talent with gaming and new media interests into roles and companies that may see themselves today as existing solely outside the virtual world.
As always, disruptive change will create winners and losers. The challenge is indeed daunting to consider, but the RICE conference gave all attendees a clear indication that inaction is not an option when it comes to the future of retail.