Who would have thought you could patent slower, more expensive shipping? The patent covers many consumer options including the option to have products shipped in smaller boxes, have items packaged together and using a shipping company that has a deliberately smaller carbon footprint.

Some of these shipping options may take longer and/or cost more, but Amazon apparently sees a market niche it can fill. It might just be the answer for people who don’t like all that Styrofoam floating around. We’ll keep an eye on how these new options are implemented and how the public responds.

Consumer perception and ideas about brands are shifting. It’s no secret that branding sells products. A recent study by University of Miami professor Juliano Laran and colleagues reveals that a company’s brand name and its branded slogans can have opposite impacts on consumer behavior. Participants in the study’s five experiments were exposed to brands including Walmart, Sears, Home Depot and Dollar General, and to the slogans those brands use, such as Walmart’s “Save Money. Live Better” and Sears’  “The Good Life at a Great Price (Guaranteed).”

“Exposure to the retailer brand name Walmart, typically associated with saving money, reduces subsequent spending, whereas exposure to the Walmart slogan increases spending,” the authors wrote in the report appearing in the Journal of Consumer Research.

The results are clear: While we may like to be frugal in our spending, we don’t want to think we’re being persuaded to be prudent.

As the electronics business gets more competitive with discount stores like Target and Walmart fighting specialized stores like Best Buy for a larger customer base, stores realize they need to do a lot more than just stock shelves with the products customers want–and need. In an effort to become more of a destination electronic store, Target announced new services for electronics shoppers.

Among the new offerings, Target is adding a free telephone technical support service for purchases, an electronics recycling program that offers store gift cards and more wireless phone choices.

“Electronics are getting more complicated and more of us are connected to the Internet and wireless,” Senior Vice President Mark Schindele said. “Guests want a seamless experience.”

Like Best Buy’s Geek Squad and Apple’s Genius Bar, Target’s new services hope to bring more traffic to the store. Time will tell whether consumers will buy what Target is selling.

“It is an intimidating category with lots of complexity,” said Sam’s Club Chief Executive Brain Cornell in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “This will allow a member to walk up to a Samsung LCD Internet-enabled TV and see how to find his Facebook page or stream video from Vudu.”

Wi-Fi will also improve customers’ in-store Internet access on their smart phones and will allow them to easily find more information about a product and do comparison shopping within the store. Sam’s Club isn’t concerned about its customers doing price comparisons with its competitors. Consumer electronic analyst Stephen Baker from NPD Group, a market research firm, confirmed Sam’s Club has little to worry about in that respect. “[Retailers] know they are not going to lose customers over a few dollars, and many retailers have price-match programs.”

Retail analysts agree Wi-Fi access is especially important in stores like Sam’s Club, a place that is known for low prices and not necessarily for its customer service. One of Sam’s Club’s competitors, Best Buy, is also developing a mobile application for its customers this holiday season. Many other stores are sure to follow suit.

PSFK advised retailers to think of all store locations as flagship stores and treat customer visits as opportunities to tell the story of the brand. Disney stores executed this idea by remodeling their stores to become a family entertainment hub where kids can interact and play with the merchandise. The New England grocery chain Stew Leonard’s organized their stores by stocking merchandise needed for certain occasions together, such as a barbecue or birthday party. Customers then buy items for an experience and possibly pick up a few things they didn’t think they needed, like birthday hats or corn on the cob holders. Stew Leonard’s stores also have animatronic farm animals kids can play with, flat screens that show feeds of their own daily cows and bountiful offerings of free samples.

The important thing to remember is that the store is an extension of the brand and thus offers a unique opportunity to create an immersive brand experience for the consumer. Apple stores capitalize on this opportunity by keeping their design aesthetic relevant to their brand and by offering product testing stations and optional education classes for customers. Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin, Tex., is meant to be a hub for the diverse biking community, whether people are beginners or almost pros. Mellow Johnny’s even has a coffee shop, showers and bike storage systems to encourage more people to join the cycling community. By creating a community and not just a software store or cycling shop, Apple and Mellow Johnny’s make a visit to their stores not just another stop on an errand run but a place to spend an afternoon browsing and talking with others.

It’s also important to note that the stories retailers tell require scene changes. In order to keep up with shopping and cultural trends, retailers need to continually reinvent the shopping experience, all the while still keeping the brand’s core message and story in mind. Product displays and merchandise need to be rearranged and transformed to give the customer a reason to return.

PSFK highlighted some great ideas of how retailers can leverage technology and drive consumers to their stores. For certain retailers, it may be helpful for the customer if they post wait times, store maps and inventory lists on their website. Google has launched an initiative to begin posting pictures of the insides of places on Google maps. Retailers can set up an appointment with Google photographers to get their interior shot and added to the Google places site. In the meantime, stores can post updated interior photos themselves and even set up a web cam so customers can watch a live stream of the store’s activity any time they want. This way, customers can time their visits based on whether they think the photos and videos show it’s a good time for them to shop.

Once a customer gets to the store, employees can use technology to create a more personalized shopping experience. Sales staff can use handheld devices and iPhone and iPad attachments to make transactions on the floor, freeing them from the desks and increasing interaction with customers. iPads stationed in store can run applications that help customers find what they’re looking for or get more information about a product when they don’t want to talk to a sales person.

Stores can also encourage its customers to share their experience on social networking sites by building a station where they can upload a picture or message in store. Diesel in Spain equipped their stores with a kiosk and camera so customers can upload photos to their social networking sties and ask for friends’ opinions as they try on outfits. This summer, JC Penney embraced user-generated content and had kids create YouTube back-to-school haul videos, showing friends what they bought when they shopped at JC Penney. The department store hopes the viral videos featuring ordinary teens will influence followers and friends to make similar purchases.

Technology will continue to be a welcome addition to the physical store environment. It’s a valuable asset in helping retailers create a destination shopping experience through storytelling and product education.

That doesn’t mean retailers shouldn’t welcome changes to their stores. Around the same time of the release of that report came another study that revealed people are happier if they spend their money on experiences and not material goods. So what’s a store that makes and sells material goods to do? Create an experience around shopping, like B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore suggested in their 1999 book The Experience Economy. In short, Pine and Gilmore state companies must create memorable events for their customers so the memory becomes the product instead of the tangible good they purchase. It’s why you see more roller coasters springing up in shopping malls and more cafés attached to bookstores and even home goods stores.

Online shopping contributes to retail sales, but offline shopping offers an opportunity to create a lasting memory that turns a consumer into a loyal customer for your brand. How do you transform your store into an experience? PSFK, a trends research and innovation company, proposes that successful stores are the ones that leverage technology and push the boundaries of storytelling, product testing and education, two ideas that will be explored in upcoming posts.

The retailer that boasted more than $400 billion in store revenues in 2009 launched a store remodeling initiative named Project Impact in an effort to boost efficiency and sales. The project started in 2008 and is on track to have reached about 32 percent of its stores by the end of 2010. Forbes reports that the remaining stores should be remodeled by 2014.

Project Impact was put in place to declutter stores and highlight popular merchandise while discontinuing unpopular items. Reduced inventory and improved inventory turnover supports Wal-Mart™s goal to be the low price leader and helps attract customers and increase sales. Many believe the remodeling strategy was a way to appeal to consumers who frequent the retail stores Target and Costco.

Project Impact is reportedly yielding positive results. New customer data shows that Wal-Mart is attracting more upscale customers with higher household incomes and has driven a sales boost of between 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent. Even after bringing back several product categories that were initially cut, Wal-Mart still decreased its inventory volume by 6 to 8 percent, improving its working capital position.

In this volatile economy and fast-paced digital age, retailers can’t afford to be static fixtures. Wal-Mart’s™ renewed attention to customer service, consumer experience and store management has proved to be a winning combination for the retailer, reinforcing the idea that not all change is bad.

TheStreet points out that the survey echoes a 2006 Journal of Marketing study regarding the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). That study revealed the top 20 percent of companies in the ACSI combined outperformed the Dow by 93 percent, doubled the S&P 500 and nearly tripled the Nasdaq.

This year, Nordstrom saw increases in its ACSI as well as its net earnings, and it currently leads all department store retailers. It boasts an ACSI score of 83 out of 100, up 6 points from 2009, and saw a 44 percent boost in net earnings, a 17 percent jump in net sales and a 12 percent increase in same-store sales in the first quarter that ended May 1.

Jim Bush, American Express Executive Vice President for World Service, thinks some companies should rethink how they view customer service. “It’s important to see [it] as an investment, not a cost.”

It’s an investment with an infinite payoff. According to the survey, 75 percent of consumers claim good customer service will make them spread the word about a company that treated them well. Today’s digital age makes that easy for them to do. Reward your customers, and they will reward your company.

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What does this mean for brands?

Companies need to focus on creating environmentally friendly products/services to align with how consumers work and live. For instance, Toys R’ US introduced their new line of wooden toys a few months back. If a company has no way of “greening” their products or services, then they can focus on perhaps making their stores more energy efficient by changing the light bulbs or reducing waste by not using plastic bags.

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Grocery and retail stores typically charge product companies fees for this kind of placement, so the Nielsen data could determine if these placements are worthwhile.

Companies such as Proctor & Gamble, which spend $10 billion per year on product discounts and prominent display space, have not had very specific information on what they have been getting for their in-store investments. The consumer data Nielsen can provide to Proctor & Gamble and other companies will help them measure results.

One concern for this type of consumer data is privacy issues. Customers might be annoyed at the idea of being watched too closely. Nielsen says that they are aware of this risk. They purposely avoid matching a shopper’s name with purchases.

“It’s OK if they use information in an aggregated fashion,” said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

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Safeway is calling this remodel “The LifeStyle Concept.” The retail chain is looking to expand their product line and offer more variety. For instance, they have a floral kiosk that can provide arrangements for weddings, dinners, and other special occasions. The olive bar will offer a variety olives from a walk-around self serve bar. Some stores will have a Starbuck’s with in-store seating.

A store that relflects an individual’s attitudes, values, and lifestyle enhances the customer experience. Safeway is truly going for the “wow” factor.

A customer experience program can benefit retail chains that have recently gone through or are going through a remodeling period. Mystery shopping programs can help identify what changes have made the most improvement and the least. Also, it is important to make sure that all 1,700 stores provide the same customer experience.