Retail Design Expo 2017

So Monday was spent at this years Retail Design Expo, held at London Olympia as in previous years.

Having been to the show for the past two years, this year wasn't as exciting and ground breaking as what we have seen before from the product side of things.

But as usual the talks and discussions were very though provoking and informative.

Here's a brief rundown of the talks I had a chance to see.

Retail Reset: The 2017/18 Trendscape

Katie Baron Stylus

On demand: The theatre of speed

-Adidas created custom jumpers in under 4 hours in Berlin, using projections to see what the design would look like, customers could pick their favourite design and have it printed.

-3D printing in the store, nail company in London currently doing this for custom nails.

Liquid Living: Trans Sector Blends

-Marine Layer retails stores also offer Airbnb rentals in every city they have a store.

-Lush creating a YouTube channel for staff training and product demonstrations.

Chameleon Culture: Fantasy, Change and Exploration

-Filipe K offering rentals of their whole fashion line except for swimwear and lingerie, proved 30% business increase.

-Cadillac offering car rentals for $1500 a month to allow 18 car swaps in a year.

Panel Discussion: The Store of the Future

Saisangeeth Daswani Stylus

Mike Roberts (CCO) Greenroom

Jon Tollit Gensler

Store of the future:

-New experiences

-Emotional engagement

-Creating a place for people to be

-Happy people spend money

-Designers are now relationship managers for their clients

-They help the retailers create that point of change

-Customers want to be upscaled: entertained and educated

-Designers need to consider the feelings that people have in a space 'consider the mental aftertaste'

An example of quality ideas: Denver Airport walking around dogs so that anxious people can hug and pat the dogs to calm themselves down

-Don't just put digital in for the sake of digital, have reasoning behind it

-Digital in the changing rooms? Not currently looked at extensively

AR and VR:

-Place and time for VR, don't default to it

-Touch, feel and smell goes a lot further than the digital realm for customer satisfaction

- A great example of augmented reality was from LEGO a few years ago

Mobile:

-Social media and communication needs to be though through

-Social media is the way of marketing of the future

-Customers want a level of choice with mobile interaction, not shoved in their faces

-Personal phone primary piece of technology rather than a display phone or iPad next to a display

"Always use 5 senses within design to envelop customer"

Bonds (Hanes) Australia and Design Clarity: How design keeps a 100 year old heritage brand young

Anna Flavel: Store Development Manager (Bonds)

Kristina Hetherington: Managing Director (Design Clarity)

Before:

-The brand started in 1915 with George Alan Bond

-They have turned what was a product business into a brand business

-Lost relationship with large Australian retailer, Kmart, this opened the door to produce their own store

Now:

-Setting vision and values for the future

-Majority female shopper, but didn't want the store to be too feminine

-Landscape is changing and bonds wanted to change with it

-Bonds wanted to find out who their brand really was, rather than who they thought it was and they used market research in store and outside stores to interview customers and passerbys

Their aim is to become a timeless brand

Future-proof:

-Familiarise with the customers of the future

-Apply future retail mega trends & set your own for others to follow

-Omni-channel your customer journey

-Practice agile retail

-Come back to your core brand values