Brett Cameron: Sadly there has been little change in general. Of course there are exceptions, but there is a distinct lack of innovation when it comes to enhancing a brand-living experience that presents the physical retail space as an extension of the always-on appeal of the digital universe. The Virgin Megastore is a great example of a brand that has diversified and now presents itself almost like a walkthrough of the ‘whats cool’ section of Google.

Brett Cameron: Retail is under threat. While malls are as popular as ever, the desire for the convenience of home delivery at the best possible price means the retail space needs to offer a lot more in return for a customer investing their valuable time in visiting the store. This is where the mid-level brands struggle. They can’t offer the luxury personal service that premium brands offer, and they are not easily forgiven like the budget/discount brands. Therefore, they need to innovate. However, it is difficult to even find a video screen showing TVCs, recent fashion shows or any other brand videos, let alone an integrated and enhanced experience driven by technological innovation.

Brett Cameron: Evolution is imperative. Customers are looking to be taken on the digital to personal journey in the retail space. There really is an opportunity for some brands to stand out from the competition at the moment by embracing this change. Disruption is all around and customers are looking for brands to do things differently.

Brett Cameron: Brands such as Adidas & Nike have invested heavily in some pretty impressive tech over the years. This is always interesting and exciting, however, I think these are a step too far for most. Firstly, because they are cost prohibitive for many brands, and secondly the ROI is difficult to justify. The reason being that they are often require a significant departure from the shopping habits of their customers. From my perspective, those that are doing it right include Apple, Virgin, as mentioned earlier, & the bricks & mortar concepts being developed by traditional digital brands like Amazon, AmazonGo & AmazonFresk Pick-up. All of these examples embrace technology but they also remain very human centric.

Brett Cameron: As always, so much is left to the designer. However, it is the brand that needs to consider the change, because the evolution is much more about the thinking, motivation and process than it is about the look and feel. You can design and build two identical stores, but if you want the staff to deliver an ‘expert’ experience like the Apple Store Genius’ then the spend on training and handheld tech will be considerably higher. However, the experience will also be extremely different, despite the fact the 2 stores could essentially look the same.

Brett Cameron: Brands are beginning to embrace Experience Designers to develop the brand-living environments that best depict their story. Design-thinking is being adapted to challenge and sometimes disrupt the full length and breadth of the customer journey. Of course an environment demands that an interior designer is involved, but as mentioned previously, the expectations of the customer go so much further. They might first encounter your brand digitally, but then they want to see how you enhance this experience in the physical space, which ultimately they can share throughout their own digital universe.