Digitalisation

technology driven route within our stores, which will, which is what you'll see in most big global brands”

(Interview 4, 2021, 10:33). He further indicated that digitalisation retail services will be a key component for retailers to stay competitive and said that “…technology driven application to either improve client telling or personalization for the consumer...” (Interview 4, 2021, 10:33). Dan throughout his interview indicated that technology will be an ever-growing element of retail in a variety of forms.

4.2.2.1 Multi-channel Experience

In our interview with Natalia and Ryan (interview 1 & 2, 2021), who gave us insights on Vero Moda, they both touched base on the multi-channel experience that retailers are trying to implement. Natalia told us: "there is a big wish from all our retail customers to unify. So, to make one world, one experience, because they’ve all moved 10 years ahead in this last year on the digital solutions, but the shops haven’t been standing still" (Interview 1, 2021, 17:13). We talked about how this translated to the overall retail design and the way her role is also shaped in making space for more technology to run through some of the design elements that she is working on. Natalia elaborated by saying "those that are coming now, the new briefs, they’re saying like okay, we’ve done this, this is our new virtual reality, this is our omni channel. We need to make these work together in a way it all loops, so people have the same experience when they click, and they go into the shop they feel it’s one and right now it’s often not” (Interview 1, 2021, 17:33).

The omnichannel approach implies the shopping experience has the possibility to start either in the physical store, the online web shop or social media platforms (Hagberg et al., 2017). Both Birna and Dan (Interview 2 &

4, 2021) indicated that the omnichannel approach is growing and more significantly, the blending of the digital world with the physical stores is increasing is importance. Therefore, now it is a good time as the world resurfaces from the pandemic to actively integrate the digital and physical worlds for better customer experience outcomes (Hagberg et al., 2017). Ryan described one element that Vero Moda introduced recently, which seemed to have worked quite well; "We had, of course, an existing sort of online store, which is running and it's part of Bestseller.

All of the brands together in an online store. But what we really did that has actually worked quite well for us is focusing on local Instagram and Facebook accounts. So, each store has its own account. The girls working in the store are often doing a small fashion show with the other employees, and they're live streaming it." (Interview 3, 2021, 35:12). This approach gave Vero Moda a bit more of a connection to the community as Ryan explains,

"…also in terms of building this relationship with the customers, because suddenly the customers who live for example in Aarhus and see the Instagram account from Aarhus, they know the girls who are working there. So,

you have this new sort of relationship where it's not just a mega-brand with one Instagram account, but you really have this personal local connection." (Interview 3, 2021, 35:12). He also explains that when people buy from the social media account, that purchase goes towards the store that managed that account, "There has been so much talk about supporting your local retailers, supporting small businesses, and this really allows the customers to feel like they are helping girls that are in smaller towns in Denmark." (Interview 3, 2021, 35:12).

Natalia and Ryan (Interview 1 & 2, 2021), supported the point that omnichannel marketing is being filtered through the digital world and the physical stores. Both agreed that their role heavily implies the consideration of the two working together.

4.2.2.2 Digital Elements in Store

Throughout our interviews we discussed how the digital experience may influence the store concepts and the store design as well as look at the function that the physical stores have overall. When we interviewed Natalia, she told us that "All these digital solutions in store, for example, traditionally, it has never really worked because once the customer is in store they want to be in store. I personally don’t believe in integrating a lot of screens and different digital solutions and mirrors that can show you how you look and all that” (Interview 1, 2021, 21:17).

As a store designer she told us about her view on how technology maybe entering the overall stores in a slower paced way like “…if anything I believe in maybe some small codes, you know QR codes where you can get something on your own screen, maybe some other solutions with an app that navigates you in some way. But honestly, I believe that if you come to a physical shop, you want to be where you are (…)” (Interview 1, 2021, 21:17). Natalia explained that she sees a more mindful approach in which people could use the stores to really experience something new. She believes that this new experience is the reason why people go to the physical stores; “this is why you come to shop, because you want to try, you want to feel the textile…, you want to have a little chitchat with the staff, all this is part of why we actually go out there [the store]” (Interview 1, 2021, 21:17).

She elaborated on the fact that customers don’t come to the store to see more screens but rather to get away from them. This was very evident in her body language. She felt it just started to become too much with too many screens everywhere, she also said “I don’t believe that integrating a lot of screens and technology in this kind of old, traditional way, where you just really see them all over the place, half of the times it doesn’t work.

It’s not the way forward I think (…) customers are in physical stores to sense” (interview 1, 2021, 21:17).

Throughout this topic we discussed if perhaps adapting digitalization in the physical retail stores would have

perhaps cultures with a deeper relationship to technology, such as in Asia, may in some way be more accepting of having a more digitalised store experience. Natalia went on to say, “…that’s sort of where Asia is actually, really quiet on a certain level. I don’t think our European customers would have taken that [virtual mirrors] to them. I think there is a certain interest in technology with maybe a younger generation, I would maybe believe stores that are bit for younger crowds, I think it’s a gimmick. It’s fun, it’s an Instagram kind of moment” (Interview 1, 2021, 24:04). Natalia continues to explain “but in reality, this is not how you want to try clothes, or this is not how you want to be inspired by where you are” (interview 1, 2021, 24:04). Natalia was aware that much can change but as it stood now with the experience, she was pretty confident to let us that, although digitalisation is a growing trend, she believed that it was not going to take over the physical stores just yet.

Finally, when it comes to digitalising the instore environments the insights we got from Ryan, Birna and Dan elaborated on some projects that were in the works regarding digital elements more linked to the COVID-19 issues and the health and safety of customers and employees. Ryan told us that there was an application, Vero Moda was working on that could ensure a limited amount of people in the store at any given time. He said

“…there was one using the customer counter, …that would actually count the number of customers in the store and have sort of a stoplight system” (Interview 3, 2021, 15:34) a system that could tell people if they can enter in or if they have to wait. In addition, they are working on a system that would give people a queue number so people could leave the store and only come in when it is their turn. Giving customers more flexibility to ensure their safety and not congregate them in small spaces (more on this in section 4.1).

4.2.2.4 Supply Chain Issues

The issue of supply chains has come across in the interviews a little more than we expected. While we tried to focus on the overall physical stores and the customer journeys, our interview participants made comments indicating that the biggest digitalisation process that is expected to take place is directed to ensure a seamless supply chain process. This was an element that was also hard hit as much as the closing of the physical stores were during the lockdown period. Ryan drew our attention to this point “you know, you have factories shutting down in Bangladesh, or in India, or, you know, entire cities in China, where a lot of things are happening. It could also be that those are factories that we were ordering products from, like supplying fabric or sourcing…”

(interview 3, 2021, 8:04). As the shift online occurred it also shifted the supply chain management to more online orders. Dan explained “So, there was of course a shift to online, but then suddenly, there's also this realization that maybe we don't have the products we need to sell online. So, it was kind of a double-edged sword for us”

(ibid). Even though everyone was in a lockdown the demand for new products did not go away according to Dan and that the elements of the supply chain were also as heavily effected, “but we often don’t see this as a customer” (ibid).