design:retail - October 2017 - 47

047

WHAT INDUSTRY TRENDS

AND/OR CHALLENGES

ARE YOU SEEING
*

Anyone can buy stuff anywhere at anytime. Now, more than ever, the

retail experience needs to be enhanced. Don't depress your customers
walking through your stores

We are seeing and pushing for a trend

* Gen Z customers will be most difficult to engage, attract and retain * I think consumers are gradually becoming

spend time and money

more interested and invested in where their money is going. It's no longer

toward retail showrooms. This has many benefits, including smaller

just about the product

footprint, greater focus on customers from employees, as well as man-

older consumers. Making memories first, products second

aging stock inefficiencies. For big-box stores, this will also allow them to

provenance, storytelling, more natural materials in stores

create pickup points for online orders

* We need to be more creative; yet

It's all about experience now for younger and

store, buy online-during the same store visit

* Product
* Shop in-

* Speaking to customers'

we continue to decrease budget and labor for creative departments. Re-

intelligence

tailers cutting costs should be restructuring those finances to invest in

and morphing into a new model where physical stores, online and cata-

more creative talent at the corporate and store levels. Visual merchandis-

log businesses are aligned to sell product with a cohesive strategy and

ers, artists, sculptors and stylists are more important than ever

* Brands

The false reality that retail is dying; it is revamping itself

message across all channels

* The majority of retailers are under pres-

are pausing on incremental tweaks to their brick-and-mortar as they

sure from their stockholders to show a profit. Many of them can only

* Certainly the perceived downturn in

show a profit by reducing costs. In order to cut costs, they are not updat-

retail is a concern, and while companies we work with are growing, their

ing or properly maintaining the stores. There are fewer new concepts to

growth has slowed. We are all hoping to predict what the next big thing

create new ideas and customers lose interest in these companies. They

* Change

are in survival mode and there is no one looking for the new big idea and

Construction costs are rising

a way to recreate an environment that would draw people back

rapidly, which is causing a delay in our clients moving forward on proj-

* Trends such as pop-up shops and online stores creating more of a phys-

* Definite movement to the urban

ical presence by creating showrooms to bring their experiences to life.

areas and not just as a temporary thing. Need to be able to adapt product

Letting the consumers touch and feel their products and not just clicking

to smaller space in home, and product for outside living and hobbies

a computer screen

explore bigger innovation moves

in retail will be to bring some excitement back into the sector
as a transitional evolution to the future

ects that have already been approved

scaled to limited green space

Financial constraints and restrictions;

* Instant gratification * Retail needs to focus on the

overgrowth of square footage. So, more now than ever, real estate strategy

still a lot of fear of spending money (recession bounceback is slow).

will be key for growth

Struggle to adapt to economic, social and cultural shifts in how people

and mortar.

Retail theater-bringing people back to brick

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - October 2017