How to Approach a New Store Project

I think we, the design community, are in as much of a quandrary about understanding what the consumer wants out of an in-store experience as the retailers who engage us looking for answers. Otherwise, I suspect we would see more traction with innovative solutions. Not that I don't think designers are trying to move the dial, but it seems like we're all struggling with how today's customer will be shopping in the future.

I will offer, in our defense, that very regularly we do come up with cool ideas; often things never tried before in a retail environment (or perhaps any type of environment), which rarely get past sketch form, due to the very fact that they are untested ideas. And then, of course, there is always the battle of giving up productive sales space, thereby diminishing sales floor capacity, to make way for experience zones. Oh, and don't forget about budget impacts. (But I won't go on a rant about the latter two, I did enough of that in last month's blog.)

I firmly beleive retailers must become more daring. Retailers come to us looking for “the store that isn't a store,” or an “iconic experience,” or, my personal favorite, their version of Apple. I offer that retailers must start to mine their consumer base for what it is that they want. I mean, really, the consumers are there pushing their commentary about everything and anything on a daily basis, so why aren't retailers taking greater advantage of the consumers who have willingly engaged in a conversation with them already?

Yes, I'm talking about crowd-sourcing design. There is much to learn directly from consumers about what they are looking for in the in-store environment, especially their tolerance for pain, with regard to endless aisle offerings and mobile checkout. It seems that retailers are still hesitant to rely on technology and offer a digital endless aisle in lieu of having all the avaialble SKUs in store – fear of the missed sale seems to carry the day every time.

But the key lies with the consumers themselves, so why not ask them? They'll be happy to tell you exactly what they want. The rub on this is that the retailer will need to reply in kind by actually addressing the consumer preferences, which may force them to do business very differently. And that's where we hit the road block.

So how can we, as designers, make all this newness less scary? We can't do it on our own. Here's what we need:

1. We need clients to engage us far in advance of signing a lease. Retail is so much more today than just designing a store. I'm not sure why the reticence to engage designers early, but the benefit is two-fold: better design and less drama (and less costs) related to compressed schedules. Yes, we need time to think and be creative, and to produce high-quality documentation that yields accurate bids (and mitigates change orders!), but even more importantly, we need the time to work with the client team to develop the appropriate strategy and meet the project goals.

There's a whole process that should take place before pen ever hits paper that almost always is bypassed, and certainly short-changed due to lack of time. Most likely, we will need to conduct research of some sort, whether ethnographic, trend, shop-alongs/observational studies or actual focus group surveys. This can take from six weeks to six months depending on the size and complexity of the project. But the time is well-spent as the end result will yield a more informed design. We can (and should) do all of this well in advance of real estate being procured, as the solution generated, if done comprehensively, can guide the retailer about not only where the store should be and what size, but how to focus the product offering.

1a. The foot note to this is that if brand creation, brand positioning, or brand refresh is required, this should be completed prior to both the strategy formulation and actual physical design of the retail environment for the most thoughtful approach. This is crucial because the brand platform is the foundation upon which the brand experience is built, and it’s the brand positioning that determines the expression of the brand’s tone of voice and point of view. These should be firmly in place so as to inform the experiential and product strategy, in-store communications and graphics overlay, visual merchandising and store design.

2. Projects need a realistic budget. Time after time, I've watched outside professional project managers, engaged by clients to develop their construction budgets, create line item budgets based on the amount of money the client has told these project managers what they propose to spend. This approach just doesn't work. All this does is amortize the available funds across the required construction buckets and has no footing in reality. I always recommend at the outset of any new project to have a professional cost estimator create a high level budget based on constructing a vanilla box at the proposed location. We, as the design professionals, walk through the base line parameters with the cost estimator to ensure scope is adequately covered. This way the costs are site specific and reflect the true construction drivers. This provides a great snapshot upon which the intricacies of the design can be layered onto later as it develops. This also puts the red flags up early if the client's budget can't even afford the vanilla box. Better to get information up front than later down the road after design fees have been spent.

3. All players should have a voice. What I mean by this is that all interested parties should have a place at the table to discuss the project goals. This means not just the store design and the construction groups, but also marketing, and yes, the merchants. I won't wax on about the importance of marketing's role. I will only reiterate that they are the ones closest to expressing the retailer's point of view and tone of voice when speaking to the consumer, so their involvement is paramount for brand consistency. That said, I learned a great lesson very early in my career while working with a luxury department store, and that was that the merchants pay for the store. Their direct input is critical to the success of the project. They should have a voice, and they should have the opportunity to be involved in the research phase, to understand the information that is being revealed, and use that information to mold the business for the future.

4. Utilization of mockups and testing. The addition of this step, often bypassed due to budget and schedule constraints, can (and should) be utilized to make new ideas less scary. If the retailer has existing stores, regardless of scale (it only takes one!), these should be capitalized on to facilitate obtaining real time feedback of new ideas with actual consumers. Whether testing a version of an endless aisle, or introduction of a coffee bar or an interactive mirror, these can all be experimented with on a temporary basis at minimal costs to gain direct feedback from the current customer base. I think retailers will find that their regular customers will be thriled to be part of the experiment, and will feel special that their “regular” store is the one selected for testing. Further, I am confident that retailers can mitigate costs of these mockups by partnering with developers of new products, especially in the digital shpere, as the developers are anxious to test their products and get them into the market.

4a. This one has a footnote, too. Pop-ups are a very useful opportunity to test new markets, new size formats, new product category introductions, new communications strategy… you name it. For legacy retailers, this is an opportunity to show the “other you.” For new retailers, this is a way to test retail without the big capital commitment of a full-on brick and mortar installation.

I realize that all of this seems very obvious, but since most of what I iterated above almost never happens in the course of our projects, I figured I'd put it out there as food for thought. Retailers need to get smarter about how they approach their new store concepts. Physical stores are their single greatest advantage over the Internet. Why defeat yourself before you even get started?

Kathleen Jordan, AIA, CID, LEED AP, is a principal in Gensler’s New York office, and a leader of its retail practice with over 24 years of experience across the United States and internationally. Jordan has led a broad range of retail design projects as both an outside consultant and as an in-house designer. She has led projects from merchandising and design development all the way through construction documentation and administration, and many of her projects have earned national and international design awards. Contact her at kathleen_jordan@gensler.com.