A vision and blueprint for the future

Reimagining the store for the next generation of shoppers

This global fashion retailer, with a significant real estate presence, wanted to take a fresh look at their store portfolio to ensure that it would cater to changing shopping behaviours and harness technology to support their growth and transformation ambitions.

Our win/win research approach focused on understanding the needs and behaviours of current and future shoppers, alongside the strategic, operational and commercial fundamentals of the business.

Our team worked in stores, conducted mystery shopper missions, did in-store ethnography and expert interviews, dug into the psychology of fashion and groups, as well as touchpoint analysis, board-level stakeholder interviews and in and out of category benchmarking.

Finding moments that matter

Through the research, we built a picture of the end-to-end shopper journey across all touchpoints for current and future customer groups. We then isolated the key moments across those journeys in which the store could support customers while creating value for the business.

A strategic north star

Working with a small client team, we developed a vision for the future store, bringing together the most powerful common needs of customer groups, the strategic direction of the business and the unique value of the brand. This was then built out into a series of opportunity areas that ensured that ideas were directed towards the most significant sources of value.

A blueprint for future stores

Our integrated team of service designers, strategists and retail designers developed a series of store concepts across different scales and functionalities, testing them with customers through focus groups and paper prototypes, and refining them into floorplans and final concepts.

For the audience

We developed a north star strategy and series of concepts that enabled shoppers to discover and enjoy fashion in a way that was more convenient, more sustainable and more enjoyable – meeting them where they were, and creating moments of delight where they really matter.

For the brand

We helped the business see the future store through the eyes of its customers and created a vision and blueprint that could align the business and inspire internal teams to build a thriving future business.