Store Environments Designed For Retail Survival

By Ron Bowers, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.

Many readers are undoubtedly focused on what it takes to keep a retail business viable in the years to come. The perilous nature of this undertaking was highlighted by a chart in a recent article by McKinsey and Company. We realize that retailers compete within individual categories, but only four of the top ten retailers overall in 1990 make that list today.

As a company devoted to improving physical store environments and customer experience we embrace the authors’ point that “stores can’t simply be places where products happen to be sold.” Future store configurations will have to be places that promote customer learning and experimentation.

In our view technology and in-store merchandising work hand in hand to fully engage customers. Interactivity drives engagement, and shoppers who engage with a product are more likely to buy a product, connect with the brand or service, and enter into a loyalty relationship.

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