Retail Store Tour’s 2023 Retail Trends: Social Media-Inspired Shops And More

December 16, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Retail Store Tours, a NY company that does customized walkabouts focused on retail innovation, is doing a press-only 2023 Retail Trends event next month just ahead of the big NRF 2023 retail trade show and conference in New York.

Not going to NRF this time around, but I thought the trends the company will be talking about are interesting, and worth relaying:

Social Media-Designed Stores: Winning physical stores are designed for shareable word of mouth and social media experiences. In China and in North America, stores, restaurants and shopping centers are being redesigned to inspire social media sharing.

Family Shopping Places: Stores and restaurants are designed for children, teens and parents, offering opportunities to engage in the physical spaces together or individually. There has never been a more important time to build environments that foster a sense of community and togetherness. The shopping mega-center American Dream and Camp have built their brands around family shopping experiences.

Health – Supermarkets and Shopping Centers: Supermarkets are adding health products and expanded health sections.

Five Senses Experience: Where touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste are all activated. Grocery stores are at the top of the list for five senses experiences. The return to physical stores has fostered a revival of bringing the five senses into the shopper’s journey in unique and imaginative ways.

Meandering Design: Replacing long monotonous straight lines of goods stacked from floor to ceiling with circular pathways creates environments that foster discovery and exploration.

Editor: that one sounds like Ikea.

Smart Store and Smart Customer Interactions: We believe that the state of technology in stores is now equal to customers’ technical prowess. RFID can be used for frictionless checkout or to find items in the store where you’re shopping or if not, at a store nearby, where it can be shipped to your home or office. With the growth of hybrid shopping, technological interconnectedness remains a key driver to build smart interactions. QR codes can be used to launch product videos, explain the composition of an item, demonstrate functionality, describe features, or show assembly guidelines. Salespeople with smart CRM tools can help shoppers find items and check out in the aisle.

This is the link to registration, but it is for trade press … so it’s likely not something any can attend.