Pages: 62

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 36

What people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences.

Pages: 22

There is no physical setting that is not also a social, cultural, and psychological setting.

Pages: 96

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 28

This chapter explores the importance of designing for the modern retail audience’s needs, desires, mindsets and missions, arguing that compelling customer journeys are those that make customers the Hero. This chapter is largely based on the author’s personal experience as a retail strategy consultant and takes an agency perspective. Section 1 begins by discussing the foundational aspects of audience understanding, and presents questions that retailers should ask to better understand their audience, covering areas like demographics, values, attitudes and lifestyles. The chapter then delves into the concept of audience mindsets and missions. A framework of three broad mission types is introduced: the Seeker, the Scout and the Sightseer. It explains the core needs, mindsets and examples associated with each mindset, providing insights into how retailers such as Amazon, Uniqlo, IKEA, Sephora, Selfridges and TikTok cater to these different audience segments. Section 2 focuses on crafting compelling customer journeys and the importance of evolving from the traditional ‘conversion funnel’ framework to the more compelling ‘Hero’s journey’ approach to experience design. Fashion retailer Anthropologie and homewares retailer IKEA are given as examples of retailers that can be understood as effectively using the Hero’s journey methodology. This section then details three key elements of all journeys – peak points, pain points and intentional friction – and how to use each element effectively. The section concludes by exploring additional important customer journey components and considerations such as the ideal duration and channel mix. Finally, the chapter finishes with implications, conclusions and recommendations for creating compelling customer journeys for retail experience designers.

Pages: 36

This chapter looks to highlight the importance of retail environments and store design. The chapter is largely based on the author’s personal experience as a retail creative director and takes an agency perspective; we use the term brand and retailer interchangeably. Introducing the strategically led approach Seen Studios undertakes with all of their projects, the chapter presents areas for consideration when delivering an experiential store design. From understanding the target audience, integration of different channels, store dynamism to sustainable initiatives and circular mindsets needed to improve retail futures. Case studies will highlight examples of best practices with a hindsight look at Seen Studios’ strategic approach for context. Case studies shown are both first-hand experience projects undertaken at Seen Studios and projects by affiliated brand partners. While retail and trends will continue to evolve, Seen Studios believes the way a retail store is viewed with purpose will continue – allowing the strategic approach to have evergreen qualities for future use.

Pages: 30

This chapter explores the rise of visceral and human-centric retail design, drawing on examples of global best practice in fashion retailing and beyond. Highlighting stores that are designed to provide highly memorable and deeply immersive customer experiences (CX) that stir our emotions and appeal to all of the senses, through sound, scent and tactile materiality. This chapter also considers the global shift in consumer sentiment towards physical and mental well-being, noting the creation of restorative and calming retail environments and illustrating the widespread adoption of the principles of biophilic design. The content is based on lived experience as a practitioner as well as rigorous research.

Pages: 134

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 49

Nike is a globally known brand with strong leadership in the sports fashion sector. The company’s growth is founded on consumer centricity, for both performance athletes and the more fashion aware, athleisure customer. Innovative retail environments and personalised customer experience (CX) within their own stores have also been central to the reinforcement of the brand, whilst a network of wholesale retail partners have supported global distribution. Recently Nike has proactively shifted their retail strategy towards DTC (direct-to-consumer) routes, in pursuit of superior CX, high-quality service and storytelling across touchpoints, which differentiates Nike from competitors. Nike has accordingly rationalised their retail network considerably, to the consternation of some loyal retail customers.

Pages: 37

Christopher Raeburn is the creative force behind the eponymous label RÆBURN. Christopher Raeburn graduated from London’s Royal College of Art in 2006, winning the Ethical Fashion Forum’s competition in December 2008 and showing for the first time at London Fashion Week in 2009. Since then, despite remaining a relatively small brand, Christopher Raeburn has continued to accumulate awards and plaudits for his work in mens- and womenswear, collaborating with numerous brands on joint product launches, and was named Global Creative Director at Timberland in 2018. Respect for materials and construction are both signature features of Raeburn’s work. Christopher’s first London Fashion Week collection comprised eight outerwear garments constructed from a single parachute, demonstrating his personal passion for military and functional wear repurposed for fashion, a theme revisited and referenced in subsequent work.

Pages: 43

This case focuses on the skin, hair, body care, fragrance and accessories (for the self and home) brand Aesop. Founded in Australia in 1987, the brand has now grown to around 300 stores worldwide, as well as having been acquired by L’Oréal – the French beauty conglomerate – in 2023. Aesop has established a strong footing in the global skincare market with its physical store’s being a key part of its identity; the brand is known to deliver unique, locally inspired and sensorial store concepts that differentiate the brand through its customer experience. In 2005 the brand launched its first Eau de Parfum, and, advancing its commitment to fragrances, introduced ‘The Sensorium’ spatial concept in Pitt Street, Sydney, in 2021 – a theatrical showcase of aromas that acts as a playground for the senses. What’s more, while store technology has continued to evolve, Aesop has largely retained an analogue experience, with physical pricing boards and friendly employee interactions. Often revered for its sensorial excellence, this case examines how Aesop executes a successful store experience using a plethora of sensorial stimuli. It goes on to explore the effects on consumers’ overarching brand experience and requires readers to critically assess how Aesop’s Sensorium brings value to the consumer. Finally, this case study explores how, and why, Aesop’s sensory experiences assist in communicating the brand’s identity. Readers will critically analyse how Aesop’s application of in-store experiences differs from the wider industry, and, using the learnings from this case, arrives at strategic recommendations for improving the customer experience of market incumbents.

Pages: 4

Until the latter part of the last century, consumer experience in retailing would almost invariably have taken place within the arena of the physical store. However, as this book has well demonstrated, retailers now operate beyond the bounds of the traditional physical outlet into digital and virtual worlds, manifest by their increasingly multi- (and even omni-)channel activities. This evolving retail practice – explored through the various contributions to the second and third parts of this volume – forces us perhaps to re-evaluate our conceptual and theoretical understandings of retail customer experience to incorporate the multifarious places and spaces within which this experience now occurs.