Welcome to democratised retail

FOR A GLIMPSE of the future, go to Showfields, which has a four-storey department store in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. These being plague years, you can take a virtual tour via its app, which directs you to “the most interesting store in the world”. Amir Zwickel, Showfields’ co-founder, says the mission is to make it as easy to open a physical as a digital store. During the pandemic, retailers from Europe, Asia and Latin America have opened boutiques without setting foot in America. They can because Showfields provides the architecture to do it remotely, including providing human “storytellers” who act as stand-in brand ambassadors. It tracks customers via its app and with cameras, providing retailers with digital feedback. It also attracts shoppers with art exhibitions and live events. “I want to be for physical retail what Shopify is to e-commerce,” says Mr Zwickel.

Showfields is a landlord, not a retailer. It represents a niche solution to what Melina Cordero of CBRE, a property specialist, says is a dilemma in the retail-property industry: “credit versus cool”. Landlords used to insist that malls and shopping centres recruited tenants with strong brands and creditworthiness. But some venerable names have gone bust. Instead landlords need “cool”, youthful brands to attract shoppers. Showfields offers that. Property barons as arbiters of what is cool or not? That is one of many incongruities in a renaissance that is blurring boundaries between customers and retailers. Mr Zwickel calls it “c-commerce” for its customer-centricity. Retailers, landlords, brands, advertisers and manufacturers are in the service of consumers, whom they know better than ever because of their data trail.