Retail Innovation Archives

These 3 Retailers Are Testing Added Services. Are You?

May 1, 2024March 26, 2024 by Maryann Javier

Blog banner featuring petco, boots beauty, and walmart pet services

Retailers have been experimenting with added services to appeal to hurried shoppers for years, but these latest innovations, explored by our Retail Safari® scouts, offer fresh insights. Here’s a sampling of added in-store features at Boots, Walmart and Petco, and how to deal with the critical real estate question. The Hot New Retail Category? Tailored ... Read more

Retail Safari® 2023 Wrapped: 5 Hot Trends to Watch for the Future

February 8, 2024January 23, 2024 by Maryann Javier

Retail Safari 2023 Wrapped Blog main banner

High-price workarounds, small formats that deliver big and hidden pearls of joy. These are among the five big themes our WSL scouts discovered on their Retail Safari® treasure hunts in 2023. Learn how Popshelf, Air Jordon’s World of Flight, Rouse’s Market and others took on innovation in their own ways. Is Your Store or Website ... Read more

Walking the Talk of the New Inclusion

November 24, 2023November 1, 2023 by Maryann Javier

Walking the Talk of New Inclusion blog banner featuring colorful collage of Lowe's Livable Home, zip-up shoes, The Joy Project, and down-syndrome Barbie

Just a few years ago, being inclusive in retail meant recognizing non-binary consumers and those with “differently shaped” bodies. But to be fully inclusive, retailers and brands will have to embrace a much wider spectrum of differences, some of which we can’t even see. Our scouts have been researching the new inclusion, and uncovered several ... Read more

Walmart, Target and Kohl’s Take on Amazon Prime Deal Days

October 16, 2023October 3, 2023 by Maryann Javier

When Amazon Prime announced its 48-hour sales extravaganza, called Big Deal Days, which begins six weeks before Black Friday, several retailers including Walmart, Kohl’s and Best Buy were quick to launch their own competing events. Here’s what these super-early holiday efforts have in common, based on our own Retail Safari® exploration of extending holiday seasons. ... Read more

Gen Alpha’s Influence Is Taking Hold at Retail

May 10, 2023April 20, 2023 by WslAdmin

Gen Alpha blog banner featuring three Gen Alpha teens and their interests

WSL has long advised that to know the shopper, you have to follow the shopper. And today, many of those shoppers are following someone in very small shoes. Gen Alpha, the oldest of whom are just approaching 14, have outsized influence as consumers. These brands and retailers are responding, with formats just for the Gen ... Read more

The Infinite Store Inside a Small Format

March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 by WslAdmin

Blog banner featuring collage of storefronts and in-store of UGG, Kohl's, and Bloomies

For our latest Retail Safari® excursions, our scouts visited several new retail concepts that meet the consumer’s preference for a quick trip but with innovative merchandising and experiential perks. What each of these store formats has in common: a small footprint where consumers can shop fast. Here’s what they get right about consumer expectations. Retail ... Read more

The New Frontier in Wellness: We’ll Help You Find Your Place

February 7, 2023August 12, 2022 by WslAdmin

Collage featuring shopper choices, clutter, apps, and clinics banner

WSL’s upcoming How America Shops® report on the future of WELL starts with emerging conditions shoppers are treating, bolder categories that are “out of the pantry,” faster services and a shift in trust and treatment. The dilemma is that as more categories have launched healthier choices, the Next WELLness Frontier is cluttered and harder for ... Read more

Improve the Store Experience Category by Category WSL Has an Index to Help!

February 7, 2023June 13, 2022 by WslAdmin

Hand placing stars down to represent categories banner

WSL recently asked thousands of shoppers what they value most in a brick-store shopping trip and what makes a good shopping experience. The answers, we learned, vary by category. So we measured how well various retailers deliver what shoppers want, by category, and reported the results in our Retailer Performance Index. Here’s how we do ... Read more

The Human Store: How Hy-Vee, Nordstrom, Victoria’s Secret and Camp Do it

November 24, 2023November 24, 2021 by WslAdmin

Adults and their kids exploring colorful, interactive store exhibit banner

Among the reinvented retail formats we have seen that meet post-pandemic shopper expectations, few resonate as deeply as the efforts by some retailers and brands to create authentic, human experiences. What does this mean? From our recent Future Shop® podcast, WSL leaders explain what makes a “human store,” with boots-on-the-ground, Retail Safari® examples. Your Store ... Read more

The MedMall Delivers the Convenient Healthcare Shoppers/Patients Demand

November 24, 2023November 9, 2021 by WslAdmin

Collage of retailers that feature medmalls and retail pharmacy - banner

As stores leave malls and shopper/patients demand more convenient medical care, what could be more convenient than healthcare in the local mall? The Big Business of WELL movement is becoming the anchor in malls across the country, seizing the opportunity presented by empty retail space. WSL runs a temperature check on “MedTail” to help you ... Read more

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