Filed under “Never trust a skinny chef”, the former CEO of a failing airline gives us insight into where the retail experience is headed:
Merchants need to quickly learn the lessons that airlines have over the last 30 years: Deal with a shopper’s lust for price-parity, and compete on a new level based on providing the features that customers value and are unique to brick-and-mortar retailers.
He then goes on to suggest best prices in-store and offering special bottled water in the dressing room. All for a fee, of course.
The nickel-and-diming is begrudgingly accepted in the airline industry because there are only a handful of ways you can fly from point-A to point-B. But as the Southwest and JetBlue airline model proves, you don’t achieve profitable growth by up-charging for everything – you do it by treating your customers like humans. And (normal) humans don’t like getting screwed at every turn.
Read The Future of Shopping Looks a Lot Like Airline Travel on Fast Company