Have to admit, my colleagues at McKinsey--and I--were just as surprised as anyone else reading this headline in the Financial Times today! "In a first for the high-minded management consultancy, McKinsey is opening a retail store and flogging underwear, make-up and jewellery to customers in a Midwest shopping mall. Due to open on Friday in Mall of America, the largest US shopping centre, the outlet is designed to test the effectiveness of new technology that retailers and their advisers could deploy to keep stores relevant in the age of Amazon. Visitors to the mall in suburban Minneapolis will be able to try out gadgets including smart mirrors and software that aims to help them pick the right bra size. Cryptocurrency will be among the payment options. In the background, McKinsey will be crunching data on shopper behaviour." So why is McKinsey doing this? "McKinsey does not expect to make money from the venture, which has been branded Modern Retail Collective. Instead, it hopes data gleaned from the project will help improve its understanding of what works in retail and what does not, and so improve the quality of recommendations to clients. #retailing #retail #bigdata …see more