Working in executive search means that every week I have the privilege of talking to interesting people.

Working in executive search means that every week I have the privilege of talking to interesting people.

Lately I get the sense that many of them are experiencing something I have been feeling for a while myself, which I’m only just beginning to understand.

Twenty years of the web has left us increasingly disorientated in a world that is now digital. We as consumers are being bombarded with so much information and choice daily that it is becoming difficult to negotiate our way.

We used to complain about how difficult it was to access information but now the growth of e-commerce and the decline of the high street means that we need more curation, on and off line.

Beth Kanter, innovator and digital media expert, defined content curation as “the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organised way around a specific theme”.

This is an easy way of summing up one of the most important trends in recent years for digital and social networks - the practice of establishing order to what customers look at and pick out.

What the last couple of years have taught us is that curation has become an indispensible tool for e-commerce retailers and bricks-and-mortar.

Curation is as important off line as it is online. If you want an example of the potential that lies in curation, just look at the growth and success of single product businesses: Evans Cycles, Topps Tiles, Rapha, Carpetright and more.

It’s what Belinda Earl is trying to do in clothing at the new M&S stores. The new emphasis on ‘curating’ apparel floor space ties in with rejuvenated collections and has garnered praise for the new, more fashion-forward layout.

Premium brands have always curated and have leapt at the chance to develop an integrated, showroom-style experience - a glance around Burberry’s Regent Street flagship, bedecked with iPads and smart mirrors, tells you the extent to which British retail’s most established names are buying into the new way of thinking.

As we know, retailing has been disrupted by e-commerce. Companies like Fancy, Motilo and Farfetch have evolved into a mix of crowd-curated content and input from global networks of boutique, independent business partners - all designed to show customers what they want to see, when they want to see it.

It has been suggested that there is a danger of consumers becoming ‘over-curated’. When shopping experiences are increasingly filtered and stage-managed, it’s possible that the temptation to seek an antidote may grow.

But the benefit of curation is simply the ease of access that comes with it - when information is uncomplicated and straightforward, people will naturally gravitate towards it.

Apple retail stores are used as an example time and again. It’s down to the way they use exclusive product base in an aesthetically pleasing and streamlined manner to excite customers but not to overwhelm them.

As Apple shows, the curation model’s ties to tech are obvious and it’s no surprise to see some of the giants of the digital world running initiatives that help people make sense of the myriad options they are confronted with daily.

IBM released its Shopping Buddy app this summer, which uses pre-existing preferences to help the in-store customer through augmented reality technology.

What better way to structure a retail experience than by distilling the blizzard of products into manageable chunks! It proves that curation can work both ways: while retailers have taken digital influences into stores, tech firms are becoming interested in diving into the retail space themselves.

Curation in retail is big business and will only get bigger. The twin influences of start-up online companies and high street behemoths are both aiming for an ordered, filtered way of getting the right products in front of the right people, and it will pay off.

What these efforts will achieve, above all, will be to make consumers feel valued. When the individual is put at the centre of the retail process, as is the case with the curation model, companies are sure to feel the benefit.

  • Moira Benigson managing partner, the MBS Group