The Brand Experience Design in the Era of New Retail

Nick Liu - Vice President of Design

2018.07.25

The retail industry has just experienced the significant changes caused by information technology and is about to enter a new era of New Retail.


On July 21, Nick Liu, Vice President of Design in ETU, attended the New Retail Summit of IXDC 2008, shared our latest thinking on the service design of New Retail. ETU thinks that it is necessary to build a full-link and multi-touch business experience service system, from the dimensions of brand, space, and digitization.

Brand, space and digitization: The service design of New Retail


There are two typical formats of enterprises in the New Retail, using digital means to maximize cost reduction and efficiency, and focusing on building the relationship between consumer and brand. Because of theses tow formats, how can we design the service of New Retail?


ETU believes that the UX design should focus on the aspect of brand, space, and digitization at the same time, to support the needs of users’ cognition, behavior and efficiency when they interact with retail corporations. 

-Brand Experience


Firstly, the experience should be designed from the emotional point to shape customers’ image of the product. Then, through the full-link and multi-touch services, building customers’ memory of the brand. 


The key to the brand experience is to design the value of business services from customers’ perspectives.


-Spatial Experience


For New Retail, space is a carrier of corporation services and brand stories. In the retail scene, customers’ experience can be enhanced through atmosphere creation, dynamic line planning, and space visual design in the sales space.


-Digital Experience


Digitization is the core driving force for New Retail, including users, store, production, channel, supply chain, marketing, etc. we use digital means to empower the consumer product, process, and scene, to reduce business costs and improve the efficiency of user shopping as well. 



The offline experience design of ETU 


We generalize an innovative model of “brand, space, and digitization”, to guide the enterprise to build a full-link and multi-touch business services system, and has been put into practice now.


In addition to using classical research methods for the position of user and brand, we use Customer Journey Map as well, to innovatively identify user pain points and improvement opportunities. 


Moreover, we design a method of Space Paper Prototype, doing Spatial Role-Playing with people from corporations to optimize the service process in an offline store.

ETU designers communicate with our customers through the Space Paper Prototype


In 2018, ETU helps Jiahua Flower Cake to upgrade its flagship store in Shuhe Old Town, Lijiang. Facing the problem of homogenization and low price competition, we extracted the core value of Jiahua’s brand and applied it to all aspects of products, services, and space experience. 


Customers can not only shop in a store with local characteristics but also getting touch with local culture, participating in baking flower cakes. During the process, consumers can re-recognize the band value of Jiahua, and form a memory about buying flower cake.

The new flagship of Jiahua is not only an offline store but also a space for making memories.


Our attempt of service design in New Retail has been at the forefront of the industry, so many challenges arose in the process of landing practice.

ETU believes that the full-link and multi-touch service system built from the perspective of brand, space, and digitization can effectively help customers achieve brand upgrading in the New Retail era. We will continue to explore and advance these methods in the future.

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