Join our upcoming Virtual Retail Safari® on September 18th: Trends Impacting The Future of Health Now & Next

Explore best-in-class retailers and brands pushing boundaries and challenging health and wellness approaches (and conversations) in bold, disruptive ways with their shopper-centric approaches.

Our innovative research captures the complete shopper experience, from what drives their choices to what inspires them in-store & online

What ensures your retail strategy stands apart goes beyond data. WSL Insights continuously bring you retail innovation trends from around the world to inspire new thinking and growth. We help you predict where your shoppers are headed and build solutions to meet them there.

WSL‘s Top Innovations

Take a world tour of the retail innovations that inspire new thinking. Here’s WSL’s Hot List of the best innovations our Retail Safari^® global scouts have recently uncovered.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Walmart Marketplace on laptop

Walmart Marketplace – Online

Walmart has expanded its marketplace to include categories of premium beauty, secondhand items, and high-end collectibles, with over 5 million pre-owned items, continuing to be shoppers’ first choice for every day and every item.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Gorton's Seafood

Gorton’s Seafood – Online

Gorton’s Seafood which makes fish sticks is celebrating their 175^th anniversary and is out to reel in Gen-Z with a “bad day to be a fish stick” bucket hat and other merch like a Warhol-inspired graphic tee or a chic tote bag.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Aetrex at DSW

DSW – Joplin, MO

DSW is home to 3D foot scanning devices by Aetrex, which just introduced a new twist – Tootsie, a friendly monster on the device’s screen who instructs and entertains kids while they hold still while the device measures their feet.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring TikTok influencers for Maybelline

Maybelline [ TikTok ] – Online

Maybelline reworked the classic “Maybe It’s Maybelline” with a fresh melody for TikTok and relaunched with the help of Hadid, Reid, Gou, and Mitchell in a group video call riffing off the “Maybe it’s…” to explain how they achieved their looks. Watch video →

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Sainsfreeze walk-in freezer pop-up at Sainsbury

Sainsfreeze – London, UK

Sainsbury hosted a walk-in freezer pop-up store selling foods that Brits say they commonly throw away and that are normally found on each aisle, frozen in innovative ways to help save space and keep food for longer, thus reducing food waste.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Pizza Hut's moving box table

Pizza Hut – Nationwide

Pizza Hut has now launched a limited-edition pizza box that turns into a miniature table offering a practical solution for pizza lovers who need a quick and easy dining setup amidst the chaos of moving during the peak time of year for moving.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Dove's "Beauty Never Gets Old" campaign

Dove – Online

Dove launched a “Beauty Never Gets Old” campaign celebrating the bestselling product, the iconic Beauty Bar, and aimed at disrupting the beauty conversation around aging and celebrating longevity featuring mature women expanding the traditionally narrow view of youthful beauty.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Olly supplements endcap at Target

Target – Chicago, IL

School is back in session, the Olly endcap at Target plays on verbiage with “Wellness is back in Session” with “more delightful school days and smoother school nights” highlighting their daily multi-vitamins and popular melatonin gummies. A simple yet effective nod to back to school.

WSL Top Innovator thumbnail featuring Samsung's SmartThings family care application

Samsung – Digital

Samsung's SmartThings Family Care is aimed at the aging population and individuals who need help with daily activities. Its global connected platform, with Smart home devices, offers comprehensive schedule management, activity notifications, medication reminders, and location-based care.

Retail Safari® What it is, How it works.

What is a Retail Safari^®? We bring you retail innovation and inspiration from around the world, every day.

Retail Safari^® is WSL’s proprietary process (yes, it‘s trademarked) that immerses your organization in places you may not think to look for innovation. You will find inspiration from around the world for strategies and programs that will set you apart and help you grow.

It’s a one-stop resource grounded in our proprietary shopper and retail insights, supported with innovation processes and toolkits that an exciting culture of creative thinking that boldly drives your growth. All powered by WSL’s retail research insights and tailored to your goals.

Custom Quote

We customize our Retail Safari® to your needs.

We curate the best-in-class global retail concepts (physical and digital) based on emerging trends we identify in our shopper research that predict the future of your retail. Our scouts around the world continuously assess what’s new and why it’s relevant. We can customize themes to your specific needs and we deliver all this to you any way you want it. To fit your budget.

Virtual Retail Safari®

We inspire you and your teams with regular curated deliveries to your inbox of what’s next at retail. No need to leave your desk. Or we can bring the Retail Safari® to you in a virtual session where you have opportunities to ask questions, discuss and build ideas, conveniently.

Retail Safari® In a Box

Call it the DIY Safari. We develop everything for you and package it up so you can conduct your own in-market Retail Safari® but with all our guidance and inspiration behind the scenes.

Retail Safari® Photo Library

We catalog all our tours by trend, topic, and category, so you have ongoing access to imagery. Ideal for teams to use for program inspiration, joint business planning, and thought leadership meetings with customers, for internal strategy sessions or corporate training. Housed in our WSL library, it’s easily accessible and customizable.

Retail Safari® Live

We create a live, in-person event, in a market, customized to your specific issues or topics. Our experts collaborate with you to identify the subject, identify and scout the market, build out the tour, and unique tools to inspire before, during, and after the event. Plus, a framework and action steps that deliver bold, differentiated shopper and retail solutions.

`Our proprietary Retail Safari^® empowers you to anticipate the future of retail` through emerging, relevant retail concepts from around the world.

Our Retail Safari® brings amazing retail concepts to you, in easy-to-follow visual reports, video streams, in-person events, and more. From New York to London, from China to California, our scouts continuously search out the latest retail innovations often in most surprising forms – so you’re prepared for what’s next.

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Become a Client

Sign up to our Shopper, Retail Trends and Research Insights.

Get our latest thinking on what’s next with shoppers and retail.

The Retail Safari® is a much smarter way to tour stores. We go to stores that make us think outside our walls and using the Retail Safari® guide map taught my team how to look at the elements of a store that impact shoppers. It’s a productive tool to find new ideas we can take to retailers to impact our brands in their stores.

VP Sales // Health Care Company

You used innovative tools to help us create really smart ideas to drive the Bath & Body Works business. The Retail Safari® was efficient, productive and won the respect of our team and senior management.

VP Consumer Insights // Bath & Body Works

Thank you for your leadership during our Retail Safari® last week! You did a fantastic job setting our path and keeping us focused and on track. The debrief at the end is the most important part and while we were all spent at the end of the day, you were able to get a strong list of action items out of us! We were all impressed that you were able to get us to 9 stores in one day and it didn’t feel overwhelming. Great job!

Director, Category Management // Keurig Dr. Pepper

I love your virtual safaris. It’s a way to get in touch with retail innovation in a time-effective way. I learn something new or I’m prompted to think about an initiative in a new way every time I am with you all-thank you!! Great presentation – was very value-added.

Retail Safari® Virtual Event // Attendee

Target is well-known for terrific marketing, but we also know the power of smart ideas from external sources, and that is when we call WSL Strategic Retail.