Extraordinary Sustainability: 5 Retail Safari® Examples

Dynamic collage of sustainability signs and interactions at beauty retailers
WSL’s research shows that shoppers have long felt sustainability is a cause worth spending more for. Now retailers are taking that value-driven purpose from ordinary to extraordinary, and driving even more shoppers toward sustainability. Here, we share five examples from our Retail Safari® tours. Shoppers Sought Sustainable Retail, Now It’s Seeking Them Sustainability is becoming ... Read more

WSL’s Virtual Retail Safari® Reveal Reimagined Stores

Retail Safari promo banner with maps and location marker illustrations on laptop screen
The year 2020 not only redefined shopping, it helped re-engineer what stores look like now. WSL Retail Safari® scouts explored some of the most forward-looking changes in the physical store. Following are concepts worth watching, from our recent tours. What Kinds of Stores are Your Shoppers Returning To? The physical store was changing long before ... Read more

Online Retail is Falling Flat – Here’s How to Give it Life

So far, e-commerce has gotten away with just being fast and functional. But in this pandemic, as more shoppers gravitate toward online purchases out of necessity or convenience, it needs to prove it can connect with shoppers more personally. Here are two common-sense ways retailers and brands can engage emotionally, with insights derived from WSL’s ... Read more

Can Retailers and Brands Meet Online Shopper Expectations?

COVID-19 is causing an unprecedented number of shoppers to order basic goods for delivery, and many have never before purchased these categories online. What is their experience? Will they be omni grocery shoppers in a post-COVID-19 world? The results from our report, How America Shops® in a COVID-19 Crisis. Online Orders are at Record Levels. ... Read more

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

[ 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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