We use cookies to give you the best personal experience on our website. If you continue to use our site without changing your cookie settings, you agree we may place these cookies on your device. You can change your cookie settings at any time but if you do , you may lose some functionality on our website . More information can be found in our privacy policy.
Please provide more information.
Stylus no longer supports Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9. Please upgrade to IE 11, Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge. This will ensure you have the best possible experience on the site.
stylus
trends		 consumer
lifestyle		 consumer
product		 consumer
engagement		 topics events
calendar		 blog
view all
reports
 		about
stylus		 login
stylus trends
Consumer Lifestyle
Food, Beverage & Hospitality
Fashion
Beauty
Product Design
Colour & Materials
Retail
Media & Marketing
topics
view all reports
events calendar
blog
about stylus
T&C
careers
contact us
login
Retail

Retail Design Expo 2018: Slow Retail

New retail and brand spaces are promoting a sense of wonder and exploration, drawing inspiration from exhibition design and showrooms. All this – and much more – was on the agenda at London’s Retail Design Expo (May 2-3). We sum up the highlights.

Share:
Published:
10 May 2018
BY: Stefanie Dorfer
DOWNLOAD PDF
RELATED REPORTS
Petco Opens a Service-Led Wellbeing Store for Animals
Petco Opens a Service-Led Wellbeing Store for Animals Petco’s New Animal Wellbeing Store Service-led stores are thriving, so why not create one for pets? American retailer Petco recently opened Pet Coach, a one-stop shop for veterinary, day-care and training services that pampers animals with human-grade luxuries.
Retail
Store Concepts
01 Aug 2018
Soft Sell: The New Retail
Soft Sell: The New Retail Soft Sell: The New Retail Physical retail has to undergo a dramatic transformation to maintain its relevance in the digital age. Forward-thinking retailers are selling softly, emphasising the experience rather than pushing for the sale. Here’s how it can work.
Retail
Store Concepts
26 Jul 2018
Does London’s Coal Drops Yard Redefine Mall Culture?
Does London’s Coal Drops Yard Redefine Mall Culture? Coal Drops Yard: The Modern Mall? London shopping development Coal Drops Yard, which opens in late October and is located just north of King’s Cross station, seeks to recalibrate what a modern mall can be. It’s an ambitious collective of 60 retailers combining artisanal and progressive brands with iconic names that aim to define the zeitgeist and apply new soft-sell retail strategies.
Retail
Store Concepts
25 Jul 2018
Alcohol’s New Retail Frontiers
Alcohol’s New Retail Frontiers Alcohol’s New Retail Frontiers Smart alcohol brands are striving to satisfy consumers' thirst for knowledge and authentic experiences by becoming hosts, educators and collaborators. Including multisensory store playgrounds, hospitality concepts and mood-driven search tools, we highlight winning engagement strategies for alcohol retailers and beverage brands.
Retail
Store Concepts
12 Jul 2018
Unmasking Engagement
Unmasking Engagement Unmasking Engagement Stylus distils the most promising beauty engagement strategies from Asia, including educational live-streaming, selfie playgrounds and beautified gaming activations, with learnings for brands targeting Asia or looking to adapt ideas for the Western hemisphere.
Retail
Beauty
19 Jun 2018
VIEW ALL Reports
Future Stores 2018: Retail Innovation Insights
Future Stores 2018: Retail Innovation Insights Future Stores 2018: Retail Insights Executives from Europe’s most progressive retailers met in London for the second edition of Future Stores (May 16-17) to share insights on how to unlock bricks-and-mortar retail’s full potential. We present some highlights.
Retail
Store Concepts
29 May 2018
Ssense’s ‘Slow Retail’ Montreal Flagship
Ssense’s ‘Slow Retail’ Montreal Flagship Ssense’s Montreal Flagship Echoing the rise of stores as brand playgrounds, Canadian e-commerce fashion platform Ssense has opened an explorative bricks-and-mortar flagship in Montreal’s Old Town. Unveiled in May, the five-storey, 13,000 sq ft space blends online shopping with gallery-like installations to entertain today’s plugged-in consumer.
Retail
Store Concepts
14 May 2018
Intelligent Trolleys: Latest Euro Launch
Intelligent Trolleys: Latest Euro Launch RBTE 2018: Intelligent Trolley Retailers are piloting next-gen shopping trolleys that become navigational ‘friends’ rather than simply serving as repositories for supermarket groceries, with ITS (Intelligent Trolley Service) the latest to launch.
Retail
Digital Commerce
10 May 2018
Active Fun: AR Run App Encourages Shopping
Active Fun: AR Run App Encourages Shopping Run to Shop: App Promotes Outdoors US athletic wear brand Outdoor Voices’ augmented reality (AR) shopping app experience promoted a spirit of outdoor adventure among its customers. The digital initiative, which used the same technology as Pokémon Go, encouraged consumers to run or walk along outdoor trails in order to purchase running shoes and apparel ahead of their official release.
Retail
Digital Commerce
03 May 2018
Retail’s Spirit of Adventure
Retail’s Spirit of Adventure Retail’s Spirit of Adventure The influence of sports and active lifestyles has the potential to transform and reinvigorate retail. From extreme challenges to community hubs and competitive socialising, we explore how the retail experience is being recalibrated through a spirit of active adventure that builds and reinforces consumer trust and loyalty.
Retail
Insight & Innovation
01 May 2018
Retail City Guide: London, May 2018
Retail City Guide: London, May 2018 Retail City Guide: London, May 2018 London is on a roll with a wave of retail, hospitality and art openings for May 2018, including a luxurious Mayfair flagship by the late master couturier Azzedine Alaïa; a minimalist sneaker-cleaning boutique; a hip vegan Covent Garden fast-food joint; and the Victoria & Albert Museum's exploration of a sustainable fashion future. We select the highlights.
Retail
Retail City Guides
30 Apr 2018
2018: Look Ahead – Retail
2018: Look Ahead – Retail 2018: Retail 2017 was a rollercoaster of retail upheaval – with major sea changes in the form of live commerce, communal digital, empathetic engagement and dexterous physical formats. For 2018, anticipate a shift towards softer selling techniques, emotion-attuned engagement, and luxury built on the satisfaction of endurance.
Retail
Insight & Innovation
Updated 04 Dec 2017
Solving Retail’s Search Conundrums: 2017 Innovations
Solving Retail’s Search Conundrums: 2017 Innovations Solving Retail's Search Conundrums The dawn of voice-activated engagement and advanced AI is spurring the need to rethink retail search. From new visual search tools and ‘matchmaker’ concepts for trend-chasers, to linguistic tech bridging terminology gaps and delegation devices for mission shoppers, we spotlight the innovations to adopt in 2018. 
Retail
Digital Commerce
23 Nov 2017
Brand Spaces, 2018/19: 10 Trends & Opportunities
Brand Spaces, 2018/19: 10 Trends & Opportunities Brand Spaces, 2018/19: 10 Trends From nano hubs and expo stores to part-pro platforms and finishing salons, we spotlight the top 10 emerging design strategies set to maximise the success of physical brand spaces in 2018/19. 
Retail
Store Concepts
16 Nov 2017
Brands Harnessing the Hype
Brands Harnessing the Hype Brands Harnessing the Hype Driven by entrepreneurial devotees as keen to resell their goods as keep them, the sneaker market is thriving. Key opportunities for capitalising on the hype involve safe trading tools, ‘care commerce’ services, ‘earned' engagement, grassroots retailing, and spaces paying homage to the culture.
Retail
Digital Commerce
25 Oct 2017
Nordstrom’s Service-Only Store, LA
Nordstrom’s Service-Only Store, LA Nordstrom’s Service-Only Store, LA Pushing the envelope for a service-led retail economy where selling assistance is as valuable as vending products, luxury American department store chain Nordstrom has opened a prototype concept store in Los Angeles that offers nothing but professional services.
Retail
Store Concepts
25 Oct 2017
Liquid Retail
Liquid Retail Liquid Retail Retail has never been more omnipresent nor as shape-shifting – sliding into social media, service provision, education and entertainment. Liquid Retail reveals exactly how to navigate and exploit this 24-hour, hyper-connected, real-time culture, where individualisation is king, reflexivity rules the roost, and ‘pulsating’ brand relationships are vital. 
Retail
Insight & Innovation
25 Sep 2017
Beta Blends: Dexterous & Dynamic Store Design
Beta Blends: Dexterous & Dynamic Store Design Beta Blends: Dexterous Store Design Supercharged with agility, a new breed of futureproof-focused brand spaces is saluting the creep of 24-hour living, the desire for what’s ‘trending’, and the increasingly service-led, experiential retail landscape. We reveal key strategies for harnessing fluidity – from expo stores and ‘vampire’ vending, to fan-forward lab shops, hackable habitats and motion-responsive spaces. 
Retail
Store Concepts
25 Sep 2017
Reflexive Retail: Live, Emotional & On-Demand
Reflexive Retail: Live, Emotional & On-Demand Reflexive Retail: Live & On-Demand Tiring of retailers’ past-purchase-based assumptions, consumers are seeking real-time, reflexive concepts that personally acknowledge them and what they need in the here and now. From live commerce and ‘haggle tech’, to the evolution of conversational (chatbot) commerce and emotion-oriented personalisation, we reveal how to create satisfyingly agile and meaningful dialogues. 
Retail
Overview
25 Sep 2017
IRDC 2017: Beta Business, Culture Coding & The Soft Sell
IRDC 2017: Beta Business, Culture Coding & The Soft Sell IRDC ‘17: Beta-Business The International Retail Design Conference 2017 gathered architects, brand strategists, visual merchandising experts, marketers and planners to discuss spatial design trends and tactics. Using cultural commerce to drive urban revitalisation, ‘anti-store’ brand temples selling nothing but experience, pre-cursor flagships and subverting long-held brand codes were all top of the agenda.
Retail
Store Concepts
19 Sep 2017
Destination Teen: Targeting Youth
Destination Teen: Targeting Youth Destination Teen: Targeting Youth From harnessing hangout culture, self-curation commerce and influencing upwards, to embracing the teen-specific trader mentality, Gen Z requires new retail landscapes to warrant their spending. We review the key concepts seducing the youth sector, including soft-sell brand temples, gateway beauty spaces and resale sweet spots.    
Retail
Store Concepts
17 Jul 2017
RDE, 2017: Pace, Personas & Pursuing Glocal
RDE, 2017: Pace, Personas & Pursuing Glocal Retail Design Expo 2017 Pace-changing store formats, ‘glocalisation’, BYO tech, targeting new persona profiles and both empathetic and ‘freestyle’ staffing initiatives headlined discussions at the Retail Design Expo, 2017 – a show connecting store designers, strategists and brand experience experts. We distil the highlights.
Retail
Store Concepts
17 May 2017
Retail x Hospitality 2017: Mutual Brand Benefits
Retail x Hospitality 2017: Mutual Brand Benefits Retail x Hospitality 2017 We chart the retail-hotel mergers reaping major mutual benefits – covering tech-tapping concierge tactics for the on-demand economy, local-centric initiatives battling hospitality’s homestay rivals, and new-gen destinations delivering the ultimate in contextual commerce.
Retail
Store Concepts
10 Mar 2017
Rise of the Exploratorium
Rise of the Exploratorium Rise of the Exploratorium Explorative, discovery-centric and self-steered brand experiences are set to boom in value as complementary counters to retail’s increasingly algorithm-defined, streamlining-focused formats. From fashion to audio equipment and controlled disruption to digital wanderlust, we review the key tenets of an important emerging strategy. 
Retail
Store Concepts
29 Sep 2016
Exhibition Display Design: Trends & Inspiration
Exhibition Display Design: Trends & Inspiration Exhibition Display Design Trends The informative, sensorial and sometimes subversive storytelling of exhibition and trade-show design is becoming just as relevant to store design as events. From intimacy and archiving, to high-performance visions of the appliance of science, we track the ideas with the most transferrable mileage.
Retail
Architecture & Spaces
11 Aug 2016
Retail City Guide: London, August 2016
Retail City Guide: London, August 2016 Retail City Guide: London, Aug '16 With highlights including retail beauty labs, boutique tech playgrounds, Nordic performance art, a Kubrick-inspired exhibition odyssey and an almost entirely shoppable hotel in London's trendy East End, London in August offers rich pickings in terms of creative fuel. We select the highlights.
Retail
Retail City Guides
01 Aug 2016
Sonos’ Experiential Flagship: In-Context Exploration
Sonos’ Experiential Flagship: In-Context Exploration Sonos’ Experiential Flagship, NY Tapping the emerging trend for branded micro homes, US home audio brand Sonos has unveiled a new flagship in Soho, New York offering a refreshingly relaxed approach to sales. 
Retail
Store Concepts
25 Jul 2016
Inside & Inclusive: The B2C Retail Trade Show Trend
Inside & Inclusive: The B2C Retail Trade Show Trend B2C Retail Trade Show Trend A new trend is seeing once industry-only events opening up to the public, and transforming a new wave of emerging store concepts into buzzy venues resembling trade-show-style, lab-like showcases. This shift caters to increasing consumer demand for insider access and industry-standard knowledge on the shop floor (see Active Flagships and Inside, Intimate & Inclusive: New Store Design Direction).
Retail
Insight & Innovation
18 Jul 2016
Full Spectrum Fitness Retail: Adidas Runbase Berlin
Full Spectrum Fitness Retail: Adidas Runbase Berlin Adidas Berlin: Total Fitness Retail Tapping the booming wellbeing economy – an industry set to generate global sales of $1tn by 2017 (Euromonitor) – Adidas has opened its first “holistic wellbeing centre” in Berlin. The 2,000 sq m running-oriented personal development hub combines shopping, product testing, training, learning and leisure.
Retail
Store Concepts
11 May 2016
Retail Design Expo 2016: Trends and Innovations
Retail Design Expo 2016: Trends and Innovations Retail Design Expo 2016 Edition two of the Retail Design Expo established the show as an essential forum for strategic design insights, future-scoping inspiration and connecting with key creative agencies. Major themes included omni-retail, cultivating ‘beta’ commerce, the rise of the ‘retail habitat’, reframing the flagship, and the evolving media content-scape.  
Retail
Store Concepts
18 Mar 2016
Reimagining Retail Banking
Reimagining Retail Banking Reimagining Retail Banking Responding to the ongoing battle against consumer mistrust and the threat of disruptive independent tech, a new wave of strategies are refreshing the role and formats of retail banking. From mobile ATMs and finance workshops, to residential-look lounges and community-hub branches, we spotlight the tactics with traction.
Retail
Store Concepts
10 Mar 2016
Retail Business Technology Expo 2015
Retail Business Technology Expo 2015 Retail Business Technology Expo The 2015 Retail Business Technology Expo, London, showcased sector innovations and insights set to enhance the retail landscape at every touchpoint. Key topics included the evolution of big data, fulfilment, how to achieve a 'single customer view', and the value of failing upwards.
Retail
Digital Commerce
20 Mar 2015
Retail Design Expo 2015
Retail Design Expo 2015 Retail Design Expo 2015 The inaugural Retail Design Expo showcased innovations and insights in the realms of store design and creative branding in the digital era. From new-gen hybridisation and pop-up formats, to best-practice mergers between digital and physical retail, we present the highlights.
Retail
Hospitality & Service
18 Mar 2015
About Stylus Terms & Conditions Careers Contact Us

Updated
Related
 ©  PANTONE®TPX
 COATED
 RAL
 RGB
 HEX
 NCS