Instead of sitting idly by, Dimas Gimeno (Madrid, 1975) decided to use everything he learned to start new projects. Chief among these is the Kapita fund and the WOW Concept, a new ‘physical’ store model that opened its doors for a few months on Madrid’s Gran Vía and aims to combine physical and digital commerce in a single experience. And that’s far from believing the internet is the graveyard of street-level organizations, Gimeno believes physical commerce still has a long way to go if each channel takes its own role, as he explained at the Opendir convention recently. Alicante is where he gave this interview.
In recent years, there has been talk of what some have called the “retail apocalypse”, that physical commerce seems to be dead in the face of the advancement of digital acquisitions. It seems that with the launch of the WOW Concept this is not the case, claiming that there is still a way for stores. Why do you think this will happen?
We have to read some history and see that we have come from very difficult years in the industry, forcing distribution to reinvent itself again and again. The first was globalization; digitization, which then led to the emergence of a new channel that began to cannibalize physical commerce; and then the power that socialization and social networks give customers who no longer buy from you not only for what you sell, but also for what you represent, your values. Add to all this a pandemic with physical stores closed. All of this has got a lot of people thinking: ‘These people won’t survive, the stores won’t make sense and we’ll take everything digital’. But the good news is that it isn’t. Everything starts to become moderate. After the pandemic, things are returning to their natural course. People love to go shopping, and as soon as possible, people have returned to physical stores. I don’t think it’s a ‘retail apocalypse’, I think it should be approached as a renaissance. And if you know how to view the game and the role physical stores should play, they can clearly make a difference if you use them the other way around.
What will be the role of physical stores? Will they just be windows?
In no case should they be showcases, there are people who try to simplify it this way, and to no avail. Moreover, I can say that the ‘showroom’ concept is insufficient. It’s about understanding how good each channel is, what each contributes to, and trying to add to it. Everything in a physical store needs to be ready for the customer to buy, but digital can instantly become an extension of that store, allowing you to expand the assortment tremendously. But going shopping and buying an iPad isn’t enough, it has to be a true fusion of two worlds and integrated as soon as you enter the store. For example, there are also transactions that can start on mobile and can be much more profitable if you manage to take them to the physical world and continue them in the store. As impulse selling emerges and so does the figure of the salesperson, what he does is forge a bond with that customer that is impossible to do in the digital world.
Will there be a cast of roles?
I start from the basis that we have two clear motivations when buying: one is pure necessity, convenience, and when you need something, you want it as soon as possible and at the cheapest price. I think digital shopping is the queen out there. But there is a much more emotional purchase where everything you don’t need is what you say ‘I wouldn’t buy if I didn’t see it’. This most emotional purchase can never be made through the digital world, whatever they say, because the digital world has huge limitations. For starters, your phone or iPad or any device is anything that lets you see it. Second, the human connection is missing. The traditional seller factor is very important because with the well-trained and right technological tools it becomes a tremendous sales multiplier. If we understand that buying in this way, only one part of the channel does this and the other does not, we must look for the complementarity of the two. There is also the generational problem. Digital natives don’t read newspapers, don’t watch TV, their world is called YouTube, it’s called Instagram, it’s Tiktok. For this type of customer – not peccatta minuta, because we’re talking about the current and next generation – if you’re not in digital, for them straight away there isn’t. I say this because a physical ‘retailer’ cannot afford not to be there either, because he would lose access to an entire generation.
One of the keys to electronic commerce is logistics. There is some confusion now because some chains have started charging for returns, will it be a trend to consolidate?
I think so, it’s something that comes to stay. I think this is something that will adjust itself. Everything fits the digital “explosion”. The rapid and sudden growth of this channel has caused it to be bought as if your house was a dressing room. You say ‘if I can give it back’… So if you like a model, you want five of the same model to try. This doesn’t make sense, because there’s no logistics to pay for it, and it doesn’t even make sense. Those who own a physical store there have an advantage, because at least they have all of the ‘click and collect’ section, you can use your physical point of sale to reduce such situations.
Another trend is that brands are promoting direct sales through their websites. Is it a good strategy?
If I were a manufacturer, I would. I think this has been another consequence of the pandemic. Many brands saw distribution shut down and had to reinvent themselves to move their ‘stock’ and started selling directly. This is similar to what happens in restaurants, where almost none of them serve at home, and this is rarely the case now. I think this is a persistent trend and represents a new challenge for distributors, because it is no longer worth telling a brand, ‘Look, you sell through me or you don’t sell at all’. Distributors selling third-party brands now need to understand that if we don’t value them, they won’t come to us.
How do you balance the first months of operation of WOW Concept? I don’t know if you can provide some numbers in advance…
The numbers are as expected. We are improving day by day. We’ve reopened our website right now because we didn’t like what we did first, and we’re working on getting our restaurant up and running as soon as possible, which is a fundamental piece because we’re talking about two floors. building. Items were still missing. The prospects are really good. It is a very well received project. For example, we confirm that tourism is key: more than half of our clients are foreigners.
Will you take that model to other Spanish cities?
Now there is enough to do all this well, which is a challenge. But yes, we see opportunities all the time and of course we will take advantage of them when we see them. Yes, it’s true that, as far as we can see, there should be cities with a high percentage of shopping tourism, because our offer plays a very differentiating role for such customers.
What was the most useful thing you learned during your time at El Corte Inglés?
I learned everything. I wouldn’t have understood my professional life if I didn’t have close to 18 years of experience in this amazing company. I think that understanding what I’m doing today is clearly progress, a continuum of all these experiences. For me my school is the best reference I have and now at a different stage it has helped me to take all this knowledge and experience and apply it to this new project which could not be considered or realized without it. I have that point.
Did you have any regrets about that phase?
Uf, like everything else in life, I regret a lot of things, but in the end… Look, I’m going to tell you a very interesting sentence from Steve Jobs when I commented on a LinkedIn post the other day and you said it. You can’t connect the Dots looking forward, it can be connected looking backwards, because eventually, then you start to understand why things happened. A lot of things that happened to me at that stage now make sense because of what I’m doing now.
Do you think your exit is unfair?
I believe life comes as it comes and you learn and evolve.
How do you see the economic situation in the coming months? How do you think it affects trade?
If you read the papers, it’s too bad because everything is against it. Against the inflation situation, against the transportation and production costs, against the interest rates… A clearly negative situation. What can we do? Keep working, it’s the hardest thing ever, but when did that stop being hard? If so, I believe we have not had a normal situation for a long time. Now, there is a need for another type of entrepreneur, entrepreneurs who are flexible and can adapt very quickly and take risks. These are tough times, but I believe big companies will emerge from these times, because that’s when ingenuity and creativity are most important.