Don’t miss Kelley Styring’s Keynote Address at 11:15 a.m. on June 20 at OmniShopper 17 in Minneapolis.
I was recently interviewed for The Market Research Blog about my keynote at OmniShopper 17. Join me on June 20th in Minneapolis as I release my new book, the Second Edition of In Your Purse: Archaeology of the American Handbag. Here’s the article, featuring a preview of my presentation and results of the study.
OmniShopper Keynote Speaker Kelley Styring, Principal of InsightFarm, will be unveiling the insights from the 2017 Second Edition of her groundbreaking 2007 study, In Your Purse: Archaeology of the American Handbag. We talked with Kelley about how the rise of technology has even impacted this ubiquitous, important, yet often underestimated, accessory and how what’s happening in the purse is related to what’s happening in retail.
We’ve been talking about how retail has been disrupted. Has your research found that this disruption has also affected the purse?
Technology has disrupted them both. Retail and the purse are sisters, in a way. Ten years ago, the purse was the primary physical object that connected the home, where needs are created, and the store, where people shopped to meet those needs. Now, digital has not only disrupted brick & mortar retail shopping, but it has also changed the relationship women have with their purses. They sometimes choose to leave the house without a purse, choosing the cell phone alone. Now, that’s disruptive.
So, is the purse being replaced?
No. If you look at the raw numbers, more people are actually carrying purses than ever before. But items that were carried in the purse in 2007 – think maps, address books, calendars, cameras, and so forth – have been replaced with digital devices. And yet, the purse still weighs the same! Why? Because people are carrying phones and tablets and chargers and earphones and other related paraphernalia and they are struggling with all that stuff. The purse is still a vital tool used daily by 85% of people, it’s just being used differently.
How are shoppers changing purses?
Purse design is changing to meet the needs of different consumers. You see smaller purses that accommodate the phone and a few other items, you see more pockets designed to fit a phone. And – teaser – there’s a new group of shoppers carrying a purse that might surprise you.
How are the future of retail and the future of the purse connected?
The purse has almost become a foresight into what’s happening in retail. How we make the purse and these digital devices work in harmony is analogous to making all these ways to shop work in harmony.
How do you bring digital to bear on the purse, which is a critical item to the vast majority of people, and at the same time, leverage this really convenient thing to help with all these digital devices? In the same way, how do we leverage this huge retail infrastructure where the vast majority of people still shop and help people be more successful shopping online by bringing the two together?
Where do you see the purse moving in the next five years?
In the purse, there are billions of dollars of untapped opportunity for innovation. Many of these opportunities employ technology, such as using biometric identification to prevent it from being opened by someone other than the owner. Some of them are product and packaging opportunities, and some of them provide a better way to transport and manage all things – including digital. It’s really about brands being willing to look for the opportunities and take advantage of them.
The purse, like brick & mortar retail locations, may be evolving, but neither of them is going to just disappear any time soon.
Be sure to attend Kelley’s Keynote Winning in Her Purse at 11:15 a.m. on June 20 and discover how technology has caused far-reaching disruption, even in the most ubiquitous fashion and life accessory.
Register today and get a 20% discount by using my unique code: OMNI17KS!
