Retailers will do well if they connect the dots between products and experiences. In other words, don’t just sell a garden rake, make it part of a fun in-store gardening demo that reveals pointers about growing more robust plants and even comes with a free plant. In that way, the product helps fulfill the experience with the store as the mechanism rather than the store as simply an outside party to the experience as in traditional retail.

Regardless of activities taken on by retirees, there will be markets of goods and services to respond to those activities. Tiny house boom? There are plenty of products to fulfill that trend. RV travel/living? Again, a whole new world of opportunity for retailers. This is simply a shift in market demand that CPG and retail brands will quickly learn to provide new product categories for.

Baby Boomers have spent the past 40 to 50 years acquiring stuff. They’re (we’re!) now at a stage in our lives where we’re now figuring out how to declutter and simplify. Simple experiences rule the day. Retailers and brands should take a page out of the Millennial playbook and present the experiences Boomers will savor using their products and/or services. The luxury car brands have tapped into this messaging in their commercials.

Developing a strategy to attract Boomers into the future, retailers should consider not just Boomers themselves, but their sphere of influence in their families. Boomers become grandparents and stay connected with two generations of family as a result.

Retailers should continue to explore the creation of entertaining “how-tos” that support the purchase of a particular item, e.g. grilling classes for those buying a Big Green Egg. At the same time, creating connections across generations is a way to tap into the Boomer dollars that are spent as an investment in their own families. I like the Lego example suggested by one of our panelists and think there are many more across games, sports and even electronics.

Retailers will continue to have opportunities to sell products related to health, wellness and fitness as Boomers try to chase their imagined “youth” well into their 70s. But the overall premise of the conversation is correct: Boomers seem to be less interested in accumulating more “stuff” and more engaged in travel, dining and leisure. (This can extend to consumption of technology, another opportunity for retailers.) Their disposable income is also being pinched by rising healthcare costs.

At some point most people decide to spend on life experiences “while they can” rather than more possessions, unless those purchases are for their children and grandchildren. But even multigenerational spending is likely to be geared toward family “experiences” in the future … not a new phenomenon, by the way, even though we Boomers think we’re the first to undergo anything.

I agree that Boomers are looking for ways to declutter, simplify and enjoy. Boomers are entering a new phase of life. Toward that end, it may be more productive for retailers to look to the need gaps among this cohort. What about a trade-in proposition? Like trading in an old car.

Trade-in your old sofa, chairs, curtains, whatever, in exchange for value toward new merchandise. Encourage them to start anew with furnishings, appliances and accessories that accommodate their new phase of life.

The old stuff could be donated, the resulting “discount” is the incentive for them to refresh.

My wife and I are Boomers. We need nothing more in the way of material things. We continually focus on experiences. When thinking about spending money the thoughts are always, “That could be a dinner out.” “That could be a vacation to … ” “That could be a stay-cation.” “We can take our grand-kids to … ” Unlike our parents, we find buying THINGS is not living, it is collecting.

Yes, “experience rules!” and retail needs to get on board with that or lose out big. But let’s be clear, this is not the “experience” where we all wear the same colored tour hat, sit in the same seat on a bus day after day and follow someone with flag who half the group can’t hear anyway. That may have been our parent’s happy experience but it is not what today’s seniors are looking for.

If retail is to create its version of experience it also needs to stop relying on technology. No one counts ordering something from Amazon as a treasured memory that they’ll proudly tell their grandchildren about. In short, give people something to talk about!

I am an advocate of brick-and-mortar retailers specifically focusing on managing the customer experience, whether it be for Boomers, Generation Xers or Millennials. The larger motivation for doing so represents a pure point of difference from those selling online or those occupying the “pure price” marketing position.

However, creating a shopping environment that appeals to shopper’s emotional and sensory needs requires a deep understanding of what truly motivates various shopper groups and applying that knowledge to shopper engagement.

I feel it begins with assigning a specific, senior-level individual that has both a background in shopper psychology and retail operations to that task. These folks are not easy to find, but are truly in position to harness the right information about shoppers and translate that knowledge in cogent, doable programs and practices.

The marketing and retailing of consumers goods has always been about the selling of an “experience.” Most retailers have always understood this and have evolved to keep people in the store longer believing that experience will yield sales — wine tastings and food bars at Whole Foods, the high-end apparel retailer that offers you a glass of wine while you shop. But it’s not as as simple as that, retailers face two specific challenges: Balancing the competitive advantage (in many cases) of their in-store experience with the pressure to grow online sales and maintain the same experience. Turning those experiences into sales — an objective they share with the manufacturers of the products they sell. It used to be (still is) the primary objective of most advertising to promise that merely acquiring or consuming products will deliver the consumer’s desired experience of — say — being cool, or healthy or adventurous. This is still very true for many products. For example, healthy and organic food sales are on the rise but Americans still face an… Read more »