The fitting room has a reputation of being a little sterile at best — and completely unbearable at worst.
While few have prioritized the fitting room experience, Good American, River Island and Victoria’s Secret are among a growing list of retailers turning it into a point of differentiation by leveraging immersive visual storytelling and intentional tech integration.
“Sensorial elements set the tone and the mood from an environmental design standpoint…and then the technology facilitates the efficiency for the customer, and the learnings and data for the brand. Anything you can do to minimize the amount of time it takes for a customer to get an answer while they’re interested in a product increases the chances of a good experience.” Melissa Gonzalez, Principal, MG2
“Flexibility is definitely a key component whether you’re doing Store 1 or Store 100,” said MG2 Principal Melissa Gonzalez in a Chain Store Age’s interview with Debra Hazel.
Read the cover story, “”New Store Strategies,” on why flexibility and adaptability are key to engaging todays demanding consumers.
MG2 partnered with a prestige beauty company to assess and develop a customized, scalable sustainability program for both new and existing retail stores globally, spanning their family of brands.
The objective of this more than 12-month endeavor was to establish a framework, along with measurable standards and criteria, that could be incorporated into the built environment across various categories, including store buildout, energy, and water conservation, sustainable sourcing of materials, and operations, among others.
Goals included:
Immersion into corporate and brand goals
Establishment of standards for sustainability in the built environment
Create a set of criteria to measure sustainability
Evaluation of the full lifecycle of the brand environments, including design and materials selection, vendor selection, fabrication, installation, operations, visual merchandising, and end-of-lease removal/recycling of all elements
Deliverables included:
Stakeholder workshops to establish priorities by brand
Toolkit and guidelines, creating standards and specifications for sustainability in the built environment
A scoring system to evaluate and rank achievements within the brand’s custom sustainability program
We were thrilled to discuss our Sorel pop-up with Matthew Hall for VMSD’s “2024 Retail Forecast.”
“Saturated inside and out with the brand’s signature orange, the space’s interior walls also feature a collage of vintage ads combined with new campaign imagery to celebrate the breadth of the brand’s heritage. An augmented reality ‘Magic Mirror,’ with branded filters and experiences at the store entry, invites consumers to fully immerse themselves in the brand story and interact in a unique way. ‘The product features were a key inspiration,’ says Melissa Gonzalez, MG2 Principal and The Lionesque Group founder, ‘and New York’s energy and characteristics was the muse.'”
Bellevue joins partners to present Black History Month exhibit at City Hall
In celebration of Black History Month, the City of Bellevue, in partnership with Seattle architecture firm MG2 and Onyx Fine Arts Collective, is presenting the exhibit “Elevating Voices,” featuring the work of 17 Pacific Northwest Black artists.
Holistic Health: Consumers Are Seeking Wellness in Everything They Do – How Are You Showing Up For Them?
Retailers are beginning to think differently in response to their audience’s changing desires for “healthier” shopping experiences. By evaluating traditional store design elements through the lens of wellness, brands have the opportunity to create environments that are more holistic, rather than simply physical, and inclusive of cognitive, emotional and spiritual health attributes.
In this report, we look to demystify what well-being means to consumers and the in-store design features that support a state of mindfulness and deliver a sense of value in retail today.
CONSUMERS WANT AN EXPERIENCE THAT SUPPORTS THEIR WELL-BEING, NOT JUST A PRODUCT THAT DELIVERS WELLNESS
Consumers are more aware of their health and what contributes to their holistic well-being than ever before. This awareness, however, is not just limited to mental, emotional, and physical wellness, as it also accounts for our communal health and how we engage with wellness practices and experiences beyond our home. More and more, consumers are seeking out alternative care solutions and services. Many retailers have the ability and the real estate to test these alternatives as a way of not only contributing to their audience’s well-being, but as a way to drive greater traffic and loyalty. By offering spaces for a moment of calm or reflection, engaging water features or biophilia throughout or facilitating workshops to fuel connection, retailers and brands can go from experiential retail, to transformative retail.
For many consumers, retail therapy is transformative and delivers endorphins similar to exercise, resulting in a positive behavioral change in mindset. For many others however, the retail environment can prove taxing and stressful, allowing them to become overwhelmed and distracted from their original objective. By thinking intentionally and strategically, retailers can connect with consumers of all walks of life and deliver a comprehensive experience in-store that is good for both the body and the mind.
要点总结
Since the pandemic, the desire to prioritize one’s health and holistic well-being has increased significantly. Consumers are now making lifestyle choices with wellness in mind, which has ignited a feeling of purpose and a new sense of motivation. As individuals navigate the endless sources of stress and anxiety they face both in life and work, it is only natural that they gravitate towards environments that ease these burdens rather than contributing to them. With so many retailers to choose from, consumers are feeling a pull towards those that recognize the hardship of mental clutter and are committed to alleviating some of that tension in authentic and meaningful ways. This can be achieved in a variety of ways in store, such as thoughtful lighting design integrations, biophilia focal walls, water features, calming music or meditative spaces, all of which give the consumer the opportunity to decompress. Through this, retailers and brands can demonstrate their commitment to their consumer’s priorities and values, resulting in repeat visitation and long term loyalty as consumers will find these brand experiences enjoyable and transformative. By investing in store design features with human centric needs at the heart, brands will see a return on their investment both financially and in their audience’s social capital.
“Bars should also ideally be visible from the entrance, says Joy Dayaw, associate, MG2 Design, Seattle, to create an immediate impression and to attract early arrivals over from the hostess stand. “
Creating an immersive and engaging brick-and-mortar store takes strategy and a deep understanding of your customers. Cross-team expertise ensures that branded experiences are executed to their fullest potential.
“‘You really need that trifecta — the store design team, the business development and marketing team, and then the IT team to an extent, depending on what kind of technology integration is happening,’ said Melissa Gonzalez, Principal at MG2 and past speaker at the Retail Innovation Conference & Expo. ‘Having all these people together allows you to bring together the art, the science and the business.'”
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