{"id":942,"date":"2022-10-28T11:07:35","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/?p=942"},"modified":"2022-12-12T16:02:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T15:02:11","slug":"released-article-adopting-a-retail-phygital-experience-via-open-innovation-the-story-of-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/2022\/10\/28\/released-article-adopting-a-retail-phygital-experience-via-open-innovation-the-story-of-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"Released article: Adopting a retail phygital experience via open innovation – The story of WOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 With a $26 trillion size globally in 2021, the retail sector is experiencing an adoption of technologies to improve consumers\u2019 omnichannel experiences.
\n\u2022 The “phygital\u201d concept, growing in the retail industry, blends digital and physical experiences into one.
\n\u2022 The startup WOW develops a sandbox of physical and digital spaces to test startup technologies.<\/p>\n

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Source: Puro Dise\u00f1o, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The retail sector, with a $26 trillion global size in 2021, is experiencing an adoption of technologies to improve consumers\u2019 omnichannel experiences to secure access anytime, anywhere, on any device, and with any content. This development has been catalyzed by the recent pandemic and the growth of more digitalized generations, among other factors. Meanwhile, laws protecting consumers\u2019 data have been reinforced.<\/p>\n

However, while research indicates that e-commerce sales (digital) expect to grow by 13% annually worldwide, 78% of the total purchases still are estimated to be made in-store (physically) by 2024. Then, how to secure this \u2018phygital\u2019 integration between the physical experience (in the store) and the digital journey (in the e-commerce)? Touch kiosks, connected mirrors, beacons, and commercially augmented reality are some technologies that retailers are applying now to integrate this concept, according to the recently published article Adopting a retail phygital experience via open innovation: The story of WOW<\/a><\/em> prepared by Professor M\u00aa Julia Prats<\/a> at IESE Business School\u2019s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center.<\/p>\n

The consumer-goods company Adidas has introduced some of these to allow consumers to digitally try on clothes before purchasing in person. In the case of Gucci, in collaboration with Snapchat and the startup Wannaby, consumers can not only try their products but also personalize them before the purchase. Others aim to improve other steps in the customer journey, such as Tesco\u2019s virtual store in Seoul\u2019s subway or its contactless service in London, Amazon Go delocalized picking service, and more.<\/p>\n

Following this trend, the startup WOW \u2013founded in 2019 in Madrid\u2013 has developed a low-risk environment (sandbox) to test startup technologies aiming to improve the phygital experiences of other retailers. With a total of \u20ac33 million investment in the digital platform and physical stores, the startup\u2019s first physical location encompasses six floors of premium products addressing white-collar customers. It uses the building as an extended arm of its e-commerce.<\/p>\n

Later, in 2022, the company rented a new building in one of the exclusive shopping areas of Madrid: the Salamanca district. Expected to open doors in the second half of 2023, this second space (in Serrano Street) is going to focus on elegant fashion, formal (or smart casual), and premium-luxury brands. This will complement Gran Via\u2019s approach, more dedicated to urban fashion, sports, and premium brands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 With a $26 trillion size globally in 2021, the retail sector is experiencing an adoption of technologies to improve consumers\u2019 omnichannel experiences. \u2022 The “phygital\u201d concept, growing in the retail industry, blends digital and physical experiences into one. \u2022 The startup WOW develops a sandbox of physical and digital spaces to test startup technologies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,240],"tags":[89755,89754],"coauthors":[116155],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-innovation","megacategoria-mc-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}