Comment: Digital-first no longer the winning strategy
Customer-centricity has been bandied around for years but it has all too often been based around a data-driven, digital-first approach that has often had the objective of stripping-out friction.
In the physical space this has frequently involved getting people in and out the door as fast as possible. Whether that is through self-checkouts, just-walk-out technology models or kiosks it has contributed to an epidemic in de-humanising retail. When you also throw in the rise of collection lockers, drive-thru sites, and ubiquitous delivery then the result is face-to-face contact increasingly being eliminated. The sense of community around retail has been constantly chipped away.
This scenario has undoubtedly contributed to some serious health issues. A report in the US by its former Surgeon General found the average American had lost 24 hours of in-person connection per month in the last two decades. Young adults are at the sharp end of this, with social interaction between 15-24-year-olds having dropped a shocking 70% over this 20-year period.
Thankfully we have probably reached peak digital-first and there is increasing recognition of the value that human interaction and community play in wellbeing. Retail and hospitality businesses have a major role to play in this and we are seeing positive changes taking place. Book shops are at the forefront of this growing trend as they seek to add in stickiness to their outlets. The idea is not to get people in and out as quickly as possible but to keep them on-site as long as possible.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai, says: “They were one of the first to be disrupted by e-commerce and we thought we’d never see a revival. But now we’re seeing this almost come full circle. Consumers are not only visiting bookstores, but they’re also spending more time inside the stores once they’re there.”
Consider Barnes & Noble bookstore in the US, the share of visits lasting for at least 45 minutes has continued to rise year-on-year – from 24% in 2021 to 27% in 2025, according to Placer.ai. What bookstores have recognised is the value of connecting to local communities and personalising the experience through physical connection.
Coffee shops are also increasingly proactive in this area – notably Starbucks that could be the described as the poster child for the change. It pioneered the digital-first, order ahead via app and focus on to-go customers approach. It prioritised digital orders and offered little seating, if any, in its latter stores as it prioritised off-premises business.
But it has recognised the mistake of dehumanising the in-store experience and under its new CEO it is reversing its strategy and focusing more on attracting people back into its outlets. Don’t forget that it strongly espoused the concept of the ‘third place’ – somewhere to spend time outside the home and office – but lost its way as it went gung-ho on the digital-first approach.
Customers want something more physical nowadays. Since March 2022 there has been a decline in people taking food and drink away from coffee shop brands to another location, according to Savanta, which founds it dropped from 49% to 38%.
Starbucks, along with other coffee brands and retailers, are united in having been carried along on the digital tsunami that continues to dictate many strategies today. There is absolutely a strong argument for underpinning organisations with digital and data but this should not be to the detriment of the personal element. And I don’t mean data-driven personalisation, it’s about person-to-person interactions.
Retailers and hospitality business are in the powerful position of being able to build-out these scenarios. They can help reverse out some of the loss of community and rise in loneliness that has undoubtedly been a sad by-product of the rise of the pervasive digital-first strategies that have been universally adopted over the past two decades.
