This week, the Coresight Research team attended a TrendSeeder Innovation Series panel called “New Retail Formats,” which was cohosted by 24 Seven, TrendSeeder and Davis & Gilbert in New York City. At the event, which was sponsored by LVMH, Belvedere and Black Barn Restaurant, TrendSeeder CEO Avani Patel moderated a panel discussion among industry experts that covered themes such as retail technology, showrooming and improving the customer experience. The panelists were Andrew Deitchman, Cofounder and CEO of New Stand and former CEO of Mother New York; Rachel Kraus, VP of Marketing at Westfield World Trade Center; Neeta Singh, COO of Activant Capital; and Ron Thurston, VP of Stores and Operations at Intermix. Below are our top takeaways from the event.

• Retail’s biggest competitor is the consumer’s couch because consumers can sit on the couch and order whatever they want. To address this, mall operator Westfield is working on technology that simulates the “Amazon Now” experience and enables retailers to track inventory in real time and offer nearly immediate delivery.

Rachel Kraus, VP of Marketing at Westfield World Trade Center, said that because consumers can sit on the couch and order whatever they want, the challenge is motivating them to come into stores and try something on. Kraus said that Westfield sees its mission as “shortening the distance between the home, phone, and retail.”Kraus said that Westfield is looking at technology solutions to help bridge this gap. The company is seeking to build back-end infrastructure that will support mall retailers in creating a more cohesive and fluid customer experience. She highlighted that there is a convergence of new industries in the World Trade Center area in downtown Manhattan, providing many new retail opportunities, and that morethan400,000 people pass through the Westfield World Trade Center mall everyday. Kraus noted that the community and professional needs of the downtown area have changed, as it is no longer just a traditional “9 to 5” financial district. A broader range of companies now call the World Trade Center area home, including Condé Nast, Fast Company, Mindshare, Moody’s and Spotify. Kraus described the new technology that Westfield is working on as an “Amazon Now” real-time delivery platform. She gave an example of how it would work, saying that a professional working for Condé Nast could decide she wants to buy makeup from Sephora and then simply open an app, order the product, and have it delivered within an hour. Kraus said that Westfield is building these real-time solutions for customers and professionals, to solve their retail needs whether they are shopping or working. She said the goal is to align the right technology solutions with consumers’ needs in the downtown area. Kraus also said that Westfield is working to create a “live filter system” that would enable consumers to walk into the mall and select the product attributes they are searching for. The mall’s back-end inventory system would provide real-time inventory information, so customers could see which retailers currently have the items they want. For example, a customer looking for “yellow sweaters under $50” would see a feed in the app with items that fit that description. Kraus said that these solutions are two of the ways that Westfield is seeking to shorten the distance between the consumer and the store.

• Best-in-class retail is about providing consumers with one-on-one personal experiences, which may start with education, style suggestions or help with fitting.

Ron Thurston, VP of Stores and Operations at Intermix, talked about his prior career experience at Apple and Bonobos and said that best-in-class retail is about providing consumers with education and one-on-one experiences that help them understand fit, style and product features. Thurston commented that in the early days of Apple retail, the experience was all about education, with consumers mainly coming in to learn about products. That is still the thread today, as consumers still visit Apple stores to experience the products and learn about their features and new functionality. Thurston and the other panelists noted that Apple stores set the industry standard for exceptional customer service and that Apple staff genuinely love providing good service. Westfield’s Kraus said that she enjoys shopping at Apple whether she is alone or accompanied by her children because her retail experience there is consistently great, characterized by one-on-one attention, education and consistent quality. Thurston also spoke of his experience working at Bonobos when it was still an online-only operation.He said that men would come into the Bonobos corporate offices because they wanted to see and feel the company’s clothes, and maybe even try something on before they placed an order. This eventually prompted the office to create two fitting rooms, which evolved into the company’s famous Guideshop showroom format.Thurston said that superior customer service has been the basis of all of the companies that he has worked for and that customers continue to come back for that.

• Products, services, and experiences are blending into one retail category. The retail opportunity today lies in taking an initial consumer need and providing something more.

Andrew Deitchman, Cofounder and CEO of New Stand, said that, besides donations, consumers spend their money on three things today: products, services, and experiences. In some ways, these are all blending together into one retail category, Deitchman said, joking that, at Amazon, if you order toilet paper, you can also get a movie download. Deichman said that the real retail opportunity today lies in taking that initial moment when the consumer is looking to buy something that he or she needs, and then converting it into a want. He said that at New Stand, the modern convenience store he founded, consumers may come in seeking Tylenol for a headache, but the store’s goal is to turn that need into a larger customer experience. He suggested that retailers think about these moments as providing opportunities for “fun nonessential purchases.” Deitchman’s message is that shoppers may come in to fill a basic need, but that if retailers convince them that “this store has cool things,” they will likely come back.