Retail

The Best of Insider Trends March 2017

 

With Spring and sunny weather comes new beginnings and that is exactly what March has brought for us here at Insider Trends. You may have noticed that at the beginning of the month, we launched our brand new Retail 101 tours, a day-long crash course, focused on timeless retail principles, bringing to life key retail techniques. We’re eager to let you in on our insider knowledge, so do get in touch to experience the world’s best retail spaces in person. If you’re after a little further inspiration you could also check out our top 50 flagship stores in the world – from Apple to Missguided to LEGO, there are amazing retail initiatives all around.

 

retail pop-up design

 

On that note, we’d like to kick off with some tips on how to make your retail pop-up look good. We asked three retail design experts – Paul Brennan, Ollie Patterson and Simon Millington – for their advice and we’re pretty pleased with the tips they’ve given. An engaging store design and Instagram-worthy interior seem to be pretty high on the list! Shopping local seems to be the next big thing in retail and we were intrigued to get the low down on why customers are buying from what’s around them, rather than what’s online. Using case studies from NearSt and Quiqup, we’ve narrowed down the value in shopping locally and the impact it will have on the future of retail. W

We also completed some further studies on the power of storytelling in retail, with Newcomer Wines, Apple and Freitag all showcased for their excellent narratives. You can also learn how to get started on your own brand storytelling and get up there with the best.

 

 

Have you checked out the best of London retail openings this month? With beautiful new openings from Vanessa Seward and Joseph Cheaney & Sons, it’s not to be missed. You can also sneak a peak at the best Berlin retail openings right here. We’ve even featured a few brands showcasing disruptive retail in the last few months, so you can rest assured that these lists are the stores providing the best!

If you’re a little baffled as what we mean by disruptive retail then we’ve even got you covered there with our post on the 10 brands bringing disruptive retail to life. True disruption is about doing 10 times more with 10 times less, whether that’s less space, less money, less overheads – surely a page you want to be bookmarking.

 

Analytics - Smart Systems

 

Moving on into the world of technology, we’d firstly advise you take a look at the unknown technologies shaping the future of retail. It’s a hefty list of developing tech, so certainly worth taking note of. We’ve also taken a look at how businesses could potentially make use of Amazon’s new voice assistant-enabled Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. It’s all about thinking about how the customer works and with Amazon’s Skills programme anyone can develop their own integrations. This is a really exciting opportunity which will likely develop quickly, so keep watching this space.

 

Lastly, our Head of Trends Cate Trotter has teamed up with digital transformation company Auxilion to offer free retail digital transformation workshops that will help you navigate new technologies and digital developments. There’s still a chance to sign up so do get in touch if you’d like to take part in the free workshops take place in Sheffield (5th April) and London (6th April).

 

For more of our expert knowledge and to find out about the latest trends in retail, take part in one of our London retail safaris or register for one of our New York retail trend tours.