Democratizing Entertainment in Retail

When Sam Walton opened his second store in rural Arkansas, he wanted to create a first-day experience that attracted the town. He bought up every watermelon in the region and put them on sale for 10 cents. He then arranged for donkey rides as a form of entertainment outside the store. But on such a hot day the watermelons started bursting in the sun and the person running the donkey rides was too busy to clean up the poop - ultimately giving rise to the phrase, ‘cleanup on aisle 4’.

"most real-world experiences are expensive and difficult to scale"

From there retailtainment (retail entertainment) or retail theater, expanded exponentially across the entire sector. The activations took many forms; in-store demos, famous character visits, parking lot events, digital screens, skateparks in stores, pop-up shops and more. One retailer even partnered with brands to develop made-for-TV family movie nights.

But while we have seen many innovations in the space over the years, it still faces the same challenges it did many years ago, scale and measurability. Most real-world experiences are expensive and even with multiple co-branded sponsorships, the number of possible executions are limited by cost. Plus in the real world, it's difficult to understand the outcomes of these investments or create longevity out of the experience.

Innovation in Retailtainment

To combat the scale and measurability challenges, retailers took their entertainment digital, creating augmented reality treasure hunts, YouTube and TikTok channels, recipe sites and more. All this in an effort to drive more traffic in and create a longer-lasting engagement with their consumers.

"retailers spend millions on driving traffic to activities that sit on the periphery of shopping"

At Walmart, we chatted a lot about the intersection of content and commerce - a place that customers would visit by virtue of the experience and inevitably shop as a result. The premise is sound. We know that, for example, the stronger the content is on a product detail page, the greater the conversion rate. But we also know that content is expensive, with a single piece of content often costs between $100 and $1,000, if not more!

And content or entertaining experiences by themselves rarely gain organic traction. So retailers spend millions on driving traffic to activities that sit on the periphery of shopping - things that may help drive a visit or a sale, but are hard to quantify.

"we now have proof that there is a format at the intersection of entertainment and commerce that can truly drive return at scale."

Retailtainment of today struggles with similar challenges to that of the past. How do you scale my recipe site? How do I provide ongoing value to encourage repeat visits? How do you measure the success of something that isn't directly tied to a sale?

Customers do value entertainment in retail - it's why retailers are continue to prioritize the efforts - but what are the formats that will drive justifiable return?

Democratizing Entertainment in Retail

We now have proof from other markets that there is a format at the intersection of entertainment (content), and commerce that can truly drive return at scale.

In China, live commerce or livestream shopping will drive an estimated $423BN in retail sales in 2022. In this, live shopping is the largest and most successful retailtainment strategy in the history of retail. But how does this differ from retailtainment initiatives of the past?

Simple! It's fun, really fun! It's not about heavily curated, heavily produced videos with actors and influencers. It's about real, authentic story telling led by real people. Entertainment by the people, for the people if you will. It's your customers (your actual customers), speaking on your behalf, or having your store or home office associates talk about their favorite items.

Imagine being able to offer a really simple tool that empowers your most loyal shoppers with a voice on behalf of your brand? That's the power of live shopping.

There is proof in the performance too, or the fact that the best place to communicate with shoppers are the places where they're primed to shop.

What live shopping does for retailers, unlike any retailtainment activity in the past, is create a scalable, measurable and highly efficient platform for commerce. Imagine being able to offer a really simple tool that empowers your most loyal shoppers with a voice on behalf of your brand? That's the power of live shopping.

Somewhere at the intersection of entertainment, commerce and the customer lies the sweet spot of retailtainment. Activities that have too often been overlooked due to their costs - especially in volatile market conditions. It's time to reimagine retailtainment. It's time to get started.

Drew