What are the latest retail insights from New York City?
Fujitsu / March 10, 2022
New York City is a laboratory where new retail ideas are tested, refined, and then discarded or launched upon the rest of the world, says Richard Clarke, Executive Director, Global Retail Enterprise Business Group, at Fujitsu. To make up for the difficulties of getting to NRF New York in January, he takes us on a blog tour of the most interesting new developments there.
Inside the New York retail laboratory
Many people in the industry were not able to get to NRF 2022 in New York, due to Covid restrictions. The show itself is always fascinating. So too is the experience of getting into New York City itself, which New York functions as a laboratory where new retail ideas are tested, refined, and then discarded or launched upon the rest of the world.
To make up for the difficulties getting to NRF this year, and give you insights into the New York retail laboratory, I’m going to take you on a blog tour of the most interesting developments we discovered on the ground.
The store as a marketing platform
Our first observation was several high-profile stores with B2B propositions — rather than the conventional B2C approach you would expect — in very expensive, high-footfall New York locations. Examples include Shopify — checkout software for owners of e-commerce websites — in Greene St., SoHo. And on 5th Avenue, there is Brickworks, which targets architects and up-market construction companies looking for high-end, decorative effects.
How come B2B players think it’s worth paying for this sort of real estate? In Shopify’s case, the objectives are more likely being set by the Marketing department than Sales. They are, presumably, targeting a Gen Z audience that is overwhelmed with competing marketing messages but likely to be abundant in this NY location. This generation is much more likely to startup businesses than its parents were at the same age. Many will need e-commerce checkout solutions. Shopify is exploring a new retail-like physical browsing approach to buying B2B services.
Brickworks is doing something similar — targeting a hard-to-reach audience in the right environment: Somewhere they can impress business decision-makers (construction execs) and influencers (architects).
Is this a model for the future of the main street more broadly? With startups now regularly burning through 50% of their A and B round funding in online advertising to find customers, they desperately need to find a new marketing model. This could be part of the solution.
B2B is visible at very expensive, high-footfall New York locations
