Retail & Store Design

Before any plan: why a store is a selling machine you can walk into, not just a decorated box; the shopper journey the whole design serves; the types of retail and their very different briefs; and why physical stores matter more, not less, in the age of online.

Design starts with the shopper and the business: how shoppers actually behave, the retail brand and its customer, the hard business of retail, and omnichannel and the connected store.

The plan that makes a store work: layout types and circulation, the decompression zone and entrance flow, zoning and merchandise adjacencies, and space productivity and sales per square foot.

Drawing people in from the street: the shopfront and facade, the window display, the entrance and threshold, and signage and the storefront brand.

Showing the goods so they sell: fixtures and fittings, the principles of display, visual merchandising, and the power wall and focal points.

Guiding the shopper to buy: the path and sightlines, destination, impulse and adjacency, the fitting room, and the checkout and point of sale.

What makes a shopper feel and stay: lighting the merchandise, materials, colour and finishes, sound, scent and the sensory store, and the atmosphere that carries the brand feeling.

Where the store becomes the brand: the store as brand, experiential and destination retail, storytelling and theming, and flagships, standard stores and concessions.

Every retail type has its own rules: fashion and apparel, grocery, supermarket and convenience, food and beverage retail, and pop-ups, showrooms and malls.

The engine behind the sales floor: the stockroom and back-of-house, technology and the point of sale, staff, service and operations, and security and loss prevention.

From one concept to many stores and beyond: the store concept and prototype, rollout, fit-out and delivery, sustainable retail, and the future of retail and becoming a retail designer.