本文源引自Nikki Baird在《Forbes》2024年3月28日的刊文，采用中英双语排版，由ImmersiveTranslate提供翻译支持。
I keep track of store innovation – new concepts, new openings, new flagships, etc. I even keep track by city so that if I ever happen to be in a city where a lot of store innovation is happening, I can stop by and see it for myself.
我跟踪商店创新——新概念、新开业、新旗舰店等。我甚至按城市跟踪，这样如果我碰巧在一个正在发生大量商店创新的城市，我可以停下来看看为我自己。
But over the years of tracking store innovation, I’ve noticed that there are very few things that really seem to land. I’m talking about things that are the perfect fusion of physical location, technology infusion, store associate enablement, and ultimately, customer experience. And for the things that do land, they seem extremely difficult to sustain over time.
但多年来跟踪商店创新，我注意到很少有东西真正落地。我说的是地理位置、技术注入、店员支持以及最终客户体验的完美融合。对于那些登陆的东西来说，它们似乎很难随着时间的推移而维持。
It’s coming up again, because in 2024, many retailers are on the record saying (or actually doing, in terms of investment) that they need to focus on the store experience. They need to make stores more compelling and “experiential” for shoppers. They recognize that Gen Z in particular values the store experience, and they value it for things that stores may have forgotten how to do well, like product discovery. And they recognize that in order for stores to continue to be a successful contribution to the bottom line, they need to be leveraged for more than we have expected stores to do in the past, whether that’s for fulfillment, customer service, marketing or brand building, or just influencing customer perception.
它会再次出现，因为到 2024 年，许多零售商都公开表示（或实际上在投资方面这样做）他们需要关注商店体验。他们需要让商店对购物者来说更具吸引力和“体验感”。他们认识到 Z 世代特别重视商店体验，他们重视商店可能已经忘记如何做好的事情，例如产品发现。他们认识到，为了让商店继续为利润做出成功的贡献，他们需要比我们过去预期的商店做更多的事情，无论是履行、客户服务、营销还是品牌建设，或者只是影响客户的看法。
So why is it that Radio Flyer can add a simple test racetrack to its stores and discover the unexpected benefit of enabling a community for parents – no tech involved, unless they digitized the liability waiver? But also that a furniture store that gives its employees iPads is a “shrug” moment?
那么为什么 Radio Flyer 可以在其商店中添加一个简单的测试跑道，并发现为家长提供社区的意想不到的好处——不涉及任何技术，除非他们将责任豁免数字化？但家具店向员工提供 iPad 也是一种“耸耸肩”的表现吗？
I think it comes down to one fundamental question: are we expecting too much from stores? Or, maybe a tweak on the title – are we just not delivering enough?
我认为这归结为一个基本问题：我们对商店的期望是否过高？或者，也许是对标题的调整——我们只是提供的还不够吗？
Do we expect too much from stores?
我们对商店的期望是否过高？
On the “too much” side, I find myself always wanting way more than what the retailer provided. I want more than just a digital screen. In the Radio Flyer example, putting a racetrack in the store is relatively easy – no tech needed – but coming up with the idea is really hard. It’s not just, is it the right idea, it’s navigating all of the objections to get to a point where you can actually try it and just see what you can learn. And I still think the racetrack could be helped by tech – there could be a lap counter and a leaderboard, and if the bikes are tagged then you could learn a lot from analyzing which style gets ridden the most and which ones don’t. Or also, if some items seem to be harder for kids to use than others, as evidenced by stops and starts around the track.
在“太多”方面，我发现自己总是想要比零售商提供的更多的东西。我想要的不仅仅是数字屏幕。在 Radio Flyer 的示例中，在商店中放置跑道相对容易（不需要任何技术），但提出这个想法确实很难。这不仅仅是这个想法是否正确，而是要克服所有的反对意见，直到你可以真正尝试一下，看看你能学到什么。我仍然认为赛道可以得到科技的帮助——可能会有一个圈数计数器和一个排行榜，如果自行车被标记，那么你可以通过分析哪种风格被骑得最多、哪些风格被骑得最多而学到很多东西。或者，如果某些物品似乎比其他物品更难让孩子使用，如赛道周围的停车和起步所证明的那样。
Levi’s just opened a “NextGen” store in Kyoto. It’s got all the usual expectations – alterations and restorations, a customization shop, drops and customizations that are unique to that store, along with tapping into local artists and cultural influences as part of the store design. Yeah, okay, that’s cool. The restoration part is new and definitely reflecting the rise of reuse. But how will the company maintain the relevancy of the “local and cultural influences”? And why, after all of that, my response is still, “But what else are you going to do?”
Levi’s 刚刚在京都开设了一家“NextGen”商店。它满足了所有通常的期望——改建和修复、定制商店、该商店独有的掉落和定制，以及利用当地艺术家和文化影响作为商店设计的一部分。是的，好吧，那很酷。修复部分是新的，绝对反映了重复利用的兴起。但公司将如何保持“当地和文化影响”的相关性呢？为什么，在这一切之后，我的回答仍然是：“但是你还打算做什么？”
And I’m well aware that this jaded attitude is probably unfair. Stores are stores – for all the desire for retailtainment and experiential retail, store still ultimately have to move merchandise. It’s really difficult to escape the expectation that “the customer is here, the merchandise is here, so why aren’t you spending your time trying to get that shopper to buy what’s here?” And who can afford – and sustain – making every store a flagship level of experience?
我很清楚这种厌倦的态度可能是不公平的。商店就是商店——尽管人们渴望零售娱乐和体验式零售，但商店最终还是要运输商品。确实很难摆脱这样的期望：“顾客在这里，商品在这里，那么你为什么不花时间试图让购物者购买这里的东西呢？”谁有能力并维持让每家商店都成为旗舰级体验？
Or do we not expect enough from stores?
还是我们对商店的期望不够？
The challenge is, just selling products in a store is not enough. Fair or not, every retailer may have to entertain the notion that every store does need to be a flagship-level experience. And even more than that, it needs to seamlessly integrate technology as part of the experience, and every store’s experience probably also needs to be differentiated from all the company’s other store experiences.
挑战在于，仅仅在商店销售产品是不够的。无论公平与否，每个零售商都可能必须接受这样一个观念：每个商店都需要提供旗舰级体验。更重要的是，它需要将技术无缝集成作为体验的一部分，并且每个商店的体验可能还需要与公司所有其他商店的体验区分开来。
When I see new store concepts and there’s no sign of technology as part of the experience – whether it’s kiosks or tablets or even QR codes – I worry. Stores are disadvantaged compared to online in terms of access to rich product information, let alone anything else like inspiration or availability. When retailers don’t consider it as part of the design, they are encouraging consumers to provide for themselves – and there is no guarantee that consumers are going to start their search on the retailer’s digital properties, let alone end there. It’s even worse when the shopper turns to the store employee for that kind of information – and they’re just as limited.
当我看到新的商店概念并且没有迹象表明技术是体验的一部分时——无论是信息亭、平板电脑，甚至是二维码——我很担心。与在线商店相比，商店在获取丰富的产品信息方面处于劣势，更不用说诸如灵感或可用性之类的其他信息了。当零售商不将其视为设计的一部分时，他们就鼓励消费者自给自足——并且不能保证消费者会开始在零售商的数字资产上进行搜索，更不用说结束于此了。更糟糕的是，当购物者向商店员工寻求此类信息时，他们的信息也同样有限。
The Bottom Line 底线
It’s hard to put even more expectations on stores – it’s already a very expensive channel to operate. Putting more into that channel is just going to make it even more expensive. And it’s truly not just the tech that makes the store more expensive. It’s all the creative brainpower that needs to go into applying that technology – and all the other surrounding pieces – in an innovative way. And those age immediately as soon as they’re released into the wild, which adds a whole other level of complexity to the store experience. But without that combination of innovation, experience, and yes, technology, I think we will continue to find that stores do some cool things every once in awhile, but still have not put it together enough to deliver on higher and higher shopper expectations.
很难对商店寄予更多期望——它已经是一个运营成本非常昂贵的渠道。向该渠道投入更多资金只会使其变得更加昂贵。确实，让商店变得更贵的不仅仅是技术。以创新的方式应用该技术以及所有其他相关技术需要所有的创造性智力。这些一旦被释放到野外就会立即老化，这给商店体验增加了另一个层次的复杂性。但如果没有创新、经验和技术的结合，我认为我们将继续发现商店偶尔会做一些很酷的事情，但仍然没有足够的组合来满足越来越高的购物者期望。
