Gary Pope is chief executive officer and co-founder of  Kids Industries, an award-winning insight, strategy and creative agency that helps businesses and brands connect with the family market. Clients include Amazon Kids+, Disney, eOne, Kellogg’s, Tesco, McDonalds, Hamleys, Royal Caribbean and LEGOLAND. 

Gary also presents insight into family shopping (including a never-before-seen “experiential model”) exclusively to retailers at  Brand Licensing Europe, which runs from Nov. 17-19 at ExCeL London. Tickets are free. 

How are families shopping differently now compared to pre-pandemic?  

There are three big changes we’ve witnessed in the way families shop now compared to pre-Covid. 

Do you think these three changes are temporary or permanent? 

Good question. I think they are possibly both and neither, rather a natural evolution of the way we shop as families. Our behavior changes because of things that happen to us, and the pandemic has nudged us in the direction of digital, where we’ve discovered we like the convenience and value. But our core behavior as humans is to crave connections and shared experiences, which is why we will always want to go to the shops, walk around stores touching products, talking to retail assistants, getting demos, using testers, trying things on and having a coffee with a friend.  

And that’s why retailers are constantly talking about the importance of experiential, of creating experiences in store that attract footfall, add value and give us a reason to get off the sofa and onto the High Street. This was covered really well at the recent Retail Week Live, where Harvey Nichols talked about the way they have added wellness treatments like acupuncture in-store to give customers a reason to make a visit to Harvey Nicholls part of their daily lives.    

CEO Manju Malhotra summed it up perfectly when she said, “We need to provide excitement, energy and exclusivity so customers feel it’s worth leaving their home to get something they couldn’t get online.” 

I think families will continue to shop online for toys, white goods, food, that kind of thing, but I also think that, when the digital tax comes in – which it will – and bricks and mortar can start competing on price again, we will see a consumer bounce back in some categories. 
 

What does this mean for retailers? 

As I said before, it means bricks and mortar retailers need to be giving consumers a reason to leave the house and go shopping and what motivates us to do that is different for everyone. 

We carried out a study recently looking at the hierarchy of things families want when they go to shops and it’s markedly different for children and parents.  

Kids want somewhere to sit (your legs get achy walking around boring shops), great places to eat and get a treat, the ability to try before they buy (product demos) and friendly staff – all of which points to the “experience.” Parents, on the other hand, want good prices, convenience, quality and a place to eat is right at the bottom.   

To get families out shopping – and enjoying it enough to keep going back – retailers need to make it an occasion and give them a rationale to motivate them. The retailers who do this already – who have worked out how to connect with families – are the ones who are thriving. Families are responsible for £70,843 million of spending power. There are 27.8 million family households in the U.K. with an average spend of £3,572. What’s more, this number is increasing (by 6% last year). If that’s not a reason for retailers to get it right, I don’t know what is.  

At Kids Industries, we’ve developed an “experiential model” that we have used with our theme park and destinations clients and are planning to roll out to retail. I’ll be sharing this model with retailers exclusively at Brand Licensing Europe in November.  

Meet Kids Industries at Brand Licensing Europe – Register now!