- As online shopping and Instagram continue to transform the way Americans shop, the role of physical retail spaces is changing.
- B8ta, an experiential retail platform that previously focused on electronics, opened its first apparel and lifestyle "smart" store, Forum, in Los Angeles.
- I visited Forum and saw how its display format and tracking technology have the potential to revolutionize how physical retail spaces interact with the online shopping world.
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In today's brave new world of retail, online brands and brick-and-mortar stores seem to be hopelessly at odds with each other.
With online retail giants like Amazon often blamed for the advent of the retail apocalypse, the role of physical retail space is shifting. The way that people choose what to buy is changing, so stores and brands looking to appeal to the modern shopper have to work to be better - and smarter.
That's where Forum comes in. Forum is a smart store that showcases online, direct-to-consumer, and boutique brands. Designed by experiential retail company b8ta, Forum opened in Los Angeles in November. The store is b8ta's first foray outside of tech into fashion and lifestyle. B8ta is also the company behind the high-tech tracking system in the new Toys R Us store in New Jersey.
As scores of brick-and-mortar stores continue to shutter, b8ta's store concept reinvents the physical retail space as middleman between consumer and brand. Here's what it's like to shop there.
