Traditional retail practices are under stress as retailers ponder various ways of setting up a sustainable omnichannel business model. A significant challenge in their endeavor relates to the blurring lines between physical and digital worlds. This article analyzes three retailers’ exploratory efforts of alternative physical retail spaces. There are five key innovation areas to revamp for such a retail store: in-store technology, the role of sales associates, leveraging a mobile channel, data analytics, and collaborations. Moreover, physical retail space can serve as an aggregation hub that connects various retailer-customer interaction points across physical and digital spaces.

随着零售商考虑建立可持续的全渠道商业模式的各种方式，传统零售实践正面临着压力。他们努力的一个重大挑战涉及物理世界和数字世界之间的界线模糊。本文分析了三个零售商对替代实体零售空间的探索性努力。此类零售商店有五个主要的创新领域需要改进：商店技术，销售人员的角色，利用移动渠道，数据分析和协作。此外，实体零售空间可以充当聚集枢纽，该实体将跨物理和数字空间的各种零售商-客户交互点连接起来。