How to Redesign the Store for Services, Experiences & Community Connection

A PSFK Guide is a store as service report for the retail industry to reconsider the shopping experience in physical stores so that they can generate new revenue streams, cultivate brand community, boost traffic and dwell time, and strengthen consumer loyalty.

Executive Summary

After two years of rapid acceleration, ecommerce is cooling off as consumers look to trade their shopping habits of convenience and utility for the sensory retail experiences and connections that can be found within physical brick-and-mortar stores. As consumers deal with the digital fatigue of online shopping and social platforms, retailers and DTC brands are luring them back into physical retail at a rapid pace through a new host of IRL services, personalized experiences and tools.

Report Overview

In this report, PSFK iQ researchers present the key retail trends that can be leveraged for designers to rethink offerings, and catering services to generate a new revenue stream, cultivate brand community, boost traffic and dwell time, and strengthen customer loyalty. Through the lens of six design trend-led strategies, readers can understand the evolution of physical spaces, and examine how retailers in different verticals are leveraging and designing services that organically complement their ethos and product assortment.

What You’ll Learn In This Retail Report

• From discovery to post-purchase needs, how retailers are layering everything into the offline experiences in the retail space from brand activations, to on-demand access to subject matter experts and full lifestyle programming in order to better connect with consumers beyond digital clicks.
• The new expectations around service (i.e. personalization, expertise, consumer experience, immersive browsing) that are setting the stage for the next chapter of retail.
• To differentiate themselves and drive consumer interaction, retailers need to reconsider the store’s role within their brand ecosystem, and how they can leverage their physical footprint to better support consumers and their communities.
• Key retail trends connected to personal experience, retail sales, new business models and a hybrid model to real estate.
• This retail industry trends-led analysis is applicable for any business leader concerned with customer experience in all physical channels including pop-up stores, convenience stores, department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers.

What’s In This Report?

Through the lens of six innovative strategies, understand key retail industry trends, the evolution of the physical space in their retail stores, and examine how retailers in different verticals are leveraging and designing services that organically complement their ethos and product assortment.

This store as service retail report outlines a major opportunity for retailers and the content includes:

• 6 store-as-service strategies to leverage store-as-a-service to deliver better consumer experiences
• 18 best-in-class examples of how consumer brands and retailers are using ‘store-as-a-service’ models to align with the desires and consumer expectations.
• Statistics and consumer insights into changing behaviors and expectations of the consumer mindset around in-store engagement.
• Case studies from Hyundai, IKEA, Shopify, Buy Buy Baby and more

Who Prepared This Report?

This store as service report was developed by the same PSFK research department that since 2004 has provided trends-led innovation consulting advice to Apple, BMW, Facebook/Meta, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Volkswagen.