In Design, the ‘New’ Normal is Anything But – Pratt Design Symposium 2019

In Design, the ‘New’ Normal is Anything But blog banner featuring photograph of six Pratt Design symposium members
[ Photos by Rebecca Smeyne, courtesy of Pratt Institute ] WSL joined leading designers at Pratt Institute’s Design Symposium to discover the “new normal” in fashion, home design and retail and how to reach increasingly educated shoppers. Hint: Get out of the studios and design around the new shopper values. It’s Time to Redesign Design When consumers have unprecedented ... Read more

Retailers are Hiring for the Holidays, but for the Store?

Retailers are Hiring for the Holidays, but for the Store? blog banner featuring woman in winter clothes standing at a door of storefront
Shoppers beware: Retailers are planning to hire more seasonal workers this season, but that doesn't assure better in-store experiences. Many of those workers will be fulfilling online orders far from the store. Retailers should make 2020 the year of the in-line-online balance. Retailers better watch out: If this holiday season’s in-store experiences are anything less ... Read more

Grocers are Right-Sizing the Shopper Experience: Giant, Hy-Vee, Publix

Grocers are Right-Sizing the Shopper Experience blog banner featuring Giant, Hy-Vee, Publix
Socializing in the store aisle is sooo 2017. Today, experiential retail increasingly centers on efficiency rather than entertainment. The trick is understanding the changing definitions of each. For grocery brands Giant, Publix, Hy-Vee and others, it comes down to right-sizing the experience. Here’s what all retailers could learn from them. Aiming to hit the bullseye ... Read more

Online Isn’t Enough, Disruptive Brands are Opening Stores

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Big news! Not everyone is a regular online shopper. In fact, no more than half of people shop online in an average of three months. As a result, many online-first brands have found it necessary to open stores. Here are seven familiar sites that have joined Main Street. It looks like someone has thrown a ... Read more

5 Service Lessons from Ikea’s Manhattan Planning Studio

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Ikea’s “planning studio,” to open in April, is bringing the suburbs to the city, which apparently is just where new urban dwellers want it. Here are five ways Ikea is going to redesign the shopping trip. Today’s city-dwellers don’t merely want suburban comforts and amenities, they want to live a suburban, urban life – and ... Read more

The WSL List: Retailers That Stand Out, For Better & Worse

Blog banner featuring collage of many WSL examples of retailers going above and beyond
It’s that time of year when we look back over the past 12 months and assess the retail winners, losers and those in between. This year’s WSL List includes not only big brand names, but it also identifies five themes that inform what we call Shopping Life®. Here’s a sneak peek. Welcome to 2019, when ... Read more

The Store Shelf is a Huge Underused Media Center

Blog banner featuring blurred store aisle with speech bubbles overlaid on top asking shopper questions
Retailers are over investing in stores of the future and digital technologies while the shelf, where 91% of consumer packaged goods sales happen, remains an emotional wasteland. Shoppers have emotional connections to the categories they buy, triggered by the benefits they expect from using a product, so why do retailers keep delivering transactional experiences? Engage ... Read more

Robomart May Resurrect the Strip Mall: Future Shopping Life

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If self-driving stores and same-day delivery are the future of Shopping Life®, encouraging shoppers to stay at home, then what will become of traditional (and outmoded) centers? We have a few ideas… but what are yours? We thought Shopping Life® had changed in the last five years, but the next five (or two) will make ... Read more

Amazon Hasn’t Destroyed Retail
It’s Created Super Merchants

Blog banner featuring family dressed as superheroes with speech bubbles with retailer logos surrounding them
Not so long ago, resilient retailers were learning how to compete against Walmart. Today, a new generation of what we call Super Merchants – durable mainstays and sprightly startups – are learning how to successfully compete against Amazon. Here’s who’s getting it right, and how. The latest retail revolution is over and we have the ... Read more

The Miss with Walmart’s Jetblack

Blog banner featuring mother holding her child in the kitchen and talking to her other two children
By Candace Corlett // President at WSL  Watching Walmart has become my new entertainment (along with Broadway theater, Mr. Robot, Westworld, Suits, and my grandson, Baby James Jordan.) I am watching this brilliant example of how a long stretch of losses (9 quarters of poor sales performance at Walmart) energized this company that had become ... Read more

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