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A few days ago, I came across an article that said “Amazon opens its first UK non-food physical store”. Since when does Amazon have physical stores, I thought to myself. After spending years on perfecting its e-commerce process and successfully disrupting the retail industry, why was Amazon suddenly opening new department stores? Especially as there is currently a rising trend in shopping on e-commerce websites rather than brick-and mortar stores. It made me wonder what the business justification and reasoning behind making this decision was.

While Amazon is known for its successful disruption of e-commerce, as well as physical retail through bookstores, Amazon Prime pop-up shops, and cashier-less convenience stores, the company has veered in a new direction – department stores.

How, though, can Amazon compete with the established players within the physical department store sphere? Amazon’s unique strength has consistently been derived from their data capabilities, and it is expected that the plans to move into physical department stores will further enhance this strength, allowing the company to gather even more data behind consumption patterns of customers. This will enhance the company’s strongest asset, data, which can be leveraged to further personalize customer experience and consequently increase sales. This is in line with the company’s mission to be “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” as the traditional department store experience is likely to be disrupted through the integration of personalization, integrated technology and experiential shopping. For example, Amazon plans to reflect the most popular items with local shoppers within its collections in physical stores, displaying only the most highly rated and sought after product to enhance the shopper’s experience. Many also speculate that Amazon is planning on integrating different forms of technology in its stores to increase convenience for consumers. This includes the possibility to scan QR codes, ask for more items in dressing rooms through a touch screen, and receive recommendations for similar clothing items based on the customer’s interests. The deployment of robots and other ways of automation is also a sought after idea. However, with this increased data collection on customer shopping behavior, Amazon must maintain customer trust through strong data security.

Presumably, Amazon’s increased presence in brick-and-mortar stores will stimulate already existing department stores to re-evaluate their customer experience so they can continue to compete with the developments made by Amazon in the industry. It’s still too early to tell, but maybe this new strategic direction could signify a new resurgence in popularity for brick-and-mortar stores.

References:

Herrera, S. & Safdar, K. (2021). Inside Amazon’s Department Store Plans: High-Tech Dressing Rooms, Its Own Apparel Brands. The Wall Street Journal. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-amazons-department-store-plans-high-tech-dressing-rooms-its-own-apparel-brands-11632303002 (Accessed 7 October 2021)

Campbell, I. (2021). Amazon’s department stores sound like a very Amazon way to sell clothes. The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/22/22688707/amazon-department-store-qr-codes-automation (Accessed 8 October 2021)

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Have you ever attended an online concert? Or would you rather see an artist perform live?

While online concerts were almost unheard of and unfamiliar to most prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have resorted to offering concerts online as an alternative to live concerts. Consequently, online concerts and the use of holograms have been on the rise in the past two years, which is proving interesting for technological developments in the music industry.

While digital options were introduced as a temporary solution to restrictions and social distancing, they have offered significant benefits to artists and customers over traditional live concerts. For example, the can decrease costs related to venue booking, reach a wider audience all over the world, decrease travel costs, and only have to perform once. While such online concerts may not substitute traditional live concerts completely after the pandemic, they are likely to continue serving as an additional form of entertainment in the future

As technologies progress within the digital concert sphere, customers are also able to not only purchase tickets at a lower cost and decrease transportation costs, but they can also receive a unique experience that is not possible in a traditional live concert. For example, there have been recent developments in hologram programs as part of the digital experience, which allows more flexibility in projecting artists onto stages to mimic a live show. It also allows for concert goers to even enjoy performances from inactive artists, like ABBA, who has announced a 2022 holographic tour, in which they plan to blend the digital and physical through the use of holograms and CGI. This provides a unique business model within the entertainment industry, in which in-person events in venues can take place without the need for the physical presence of the artist. Other artists, like The Weeknd and Travis Scott, use holograms to enhance the concert experience through projecting animated versions of other artists or backup dancers onto their stage.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a presumably temporary surge in online concerts, it has also accelerated the development of concert-related technologies, blurring the lines between the physical and virtual experience of concert goers. This raises the question as to what the future of the music industry will look like in a post-pandemic world. The advancements that have been made in the industry in the past two years have been disrupting and changing how individuals consume live music. A few years ago we saw the shift in music consumption from CDs to streaming. Could online concerts and holograms be the next big technological revolution in music?

References:

Grow, K. (2019). Live After Death: Inside Music’s Booming New Hologram Touring Industry. The Rolling Stones. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/hologram-tours-roy-orbison-frank-zappa-whitney-houston-873399/ (Accessed 5 October 2021)

The Groove Cartel (2021). Virtual Sound: the Rise of Online Concerts. Available at: https://thegroovecartel.com/featured/virtual-sound-the-rise-of-online-concerts/ (Accessed 5 October 2021)