Choose Your Own (Customer) Journey

AS RETAIL DESIGN consultants, our team is fortunate to talk to every type of retail brand and hear about the challenges from several different angles. Obviously, every situation is unique and it’s a consultant’s job to suss out the need and craft a tailored solution built to address the problem.

More and more, retailers are wrestling with a lofty, seemingly unattainable big question: How do we make our stores more relevant and unique from our online channel? If there was a single big answer to that problem, we’d all be billionaires running for president or sitting on an island somewhere. (Or both!)

But there is a clear way to understand the question. It starts with the people who shop your store. Figuring out what they need at every point of interaction. In short, what is the customer’s journey, and does your store effectively capitalize on it?

Retail design is often an instinctive practice built on equal parts gut reaction and hard-earned experience. Leave the strategy to the strategists, and let us design our pretty store! But an attractive design is not enough anymore. Now it’s imperative that strategy and design work together to determine the path forward. How does that work, you ask?

It works miraculously when you find partners who can effectively collaborate and map out a retail strategy together. It works amazingly when retail brands recognize the gaps in their collective knowledge and realize that they need to better understand the problem before jumping to a solution. Innovation and disruption are born out of understanding.

Earlier this week, I was part of a conversation with a brand’s strategy lead, along with my friend and colleague on the strategy side of our business. This gentleman began our discussion with this insightful note, which really got me thinking: “[It is] an opportune time to reevaluate how we enhance and enable the consumer purchase journey (and think beyond new paint, wallpaper, fixtures and logos as the answer to store design).”

With that single sentence, design and strategy were merged. We spoke at length about how essential it is to establish the needs and purchase interactions before addressing the aesthetic decisions that affect store design. We were immediately working toward a collaborative solution that wasn’t solely instinctual, but based in fact. And it activated my design mind to think of creative ways to engage well beyond the typical.

We have clients from all categories of retail who are engaging in these kinds of conversations: grocers, technology brands, restaurants, apparel brands, hotels and even thrift stores. And it’s truly and remarkably changed the way we develop our solutions.

So, what’s the takeaway?

Think about your customer in your store. Consider their delights and their pain points. Break down the silos between strategy and design organizations so that you can effectively collaborate on new ways to engage shoppers, and let them choose their own adventure in your store in unique and different ways. Innovate through understanding.

And if you need help, talk to a consultant who believes that strategy and design go hand-in-hand.