What’s On Trend For Retail In 2022? Here Are 5 Predictions

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By Bryan Pearson on December 3, 2021  ||  Forbes If the past two years have taught the retail industry anything, it’s to meet the unexpected, eye-to-eye, with more of the unexpected.  Unexpected as in surprising channels, unpredictable brand partnerships and even a dose of the expected. Because consumer desires have not changed; they still want shopping to ... Read more

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

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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

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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

Gen Z Cares But Expects Retailers to Care More

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Members of Gen Z care about social issues, but they also demand that retailers and brands make sustainable, conscious consumerism easy to achieve. We pulled Gen Z responses from two How America Shops® 2021 reports and compiled the results, to reveal a telling pattern. Do You Really Know What Gen Z Cares About? WSL’s recent How America Shops® study, “The ... Read more

Powerful Partnerships: What Makes Retail Alliances Work

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More big retailers are exploring alliances, with the anticipation that doubling up will double the cachet, more than double the size of the shopper basket – and create a second reason to come into the store. WSL sent its Retail Safari® scouts out to see what works and does not toward this bigger-basket goal, and ... Read more

Shopper Expectations Have Accelerated. Ready to Meet Them?

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People have emerged from their COVID cocoons, and this presents retailers with an unparalleled opportunity to reacquaint themselves. Here is how retailers can alter their foundations to support the accelerated expectations of more tech-enabled shoppers, who think online first and trip to the store second. Have You Met the 2021 Shopper? She’s the Same, But ... Read more

7 Trips from 7 Explorers: WSL’s Best Retail Roundup

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WSL’s experts are committed to examining retail strategies, but we’re regular shoppers, too. So what does the Shopping Life® look like through the eyes of an experienced retail explorer? We share what shoppers told us they expect in the store now, and our own best shopping experiences so far in 2021. How Do We Define ... Read more

WSL Dives Into Gen Z: The Categories & Retailers They Shop

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Retailers and brands know a lot about how Gen Z shops, generally, but what about the ways they prioritize certain categories over others? From WSL report, “Gen Z: The Next Shopper Revolution,” here are a few category insights that surprised us.  What Does Gen Z Want More, Enhanced Water or Yogurt? We’ve all been studying ... Read more

Walking the Talk of Inclusion

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Shoppers want to feel welcomed everywhere, and retail is not excluded. More consumers support brands that promote equality – and the louder, the better. WSL’s experts share their firsthand examples of brands and retailers doing just that, including Unilever, M.A.C and Trader Joe’s. Shoppers are Equality Activists. How is Retail Reacting? Those retailers and brands ... Read more

Beauty Breaks Barriers in Health, Safety and Innovation

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Shoppers have been inspiring remarkable retail innovations across categories, but in few areas are the results as noteworthy as in beauty’s healthy, safety and digitally progressive experiences. WSL’s Virtual Retail Safari® Open Call Event, scheduled for March 11, captures the most visionary and shopper-inspired examples. Healthy Beauty is an Exercise in Getting it Right For years, ... Read more

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