Review: GlobalShop 2015

GlobalShop 2015 was held March 24-26 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, attracting designers, manufacturers and suppliers looking to discover the industry’s latest design and visual merchandising offerings. This year’s show witnessed a strong focus on interactive in-store technology, showcased in the “Path to Purchase: Destination Bricks & Mortar” centerpiece exhibit.

This exhibit, featuring multiple companies, merged the convenience of digital shopping with the experience of traditional retail. Interactive products, like the engaging shoe and nail polish displays seen in New York-based Perch Interactive’s area, or the floor-projected reactive system, Cube, presented by Toronto’s GestureTek, encouraged attendees to experience in-store tech much like a shopper would.

Other companies exhibited digital in-store marketing strategies, like beacon technology or customer data tracking software.

Revealing shoppers’ attitudes toward these trends, the show session “A Live Consumer Panel on the Path to Purchase Centerpiece Exhibit” featured a focus group of local Nevada residents – six females and three males of varying ages – that provided candid reactions to their experience during a walkthrough of the centerpiece exhibit.

“I want to date technology, not marry it,” said one consumer, which seemed to be the consensus among the other profiled shoppers. While a handful iterated their love of email coupons and straight-to-smartphone promotions, most of the panelists expressed hesitation to participate in what they considered invasive technology. When one consumer was asked about beacons, she mentioned that it had the possibility of conveying a “stalker vibe” that she didn’t feel retailers had intended.

Other noticeable trends included ease of installation for retailers, as seen with lightweight p-o-p displays, like ones from Trumari (Seattle), which fold flat or open in seconds; and the magnetic VM-Wall by Visual Magnetics (Mendon, Mass.), a multi-part backdrop and fixture arrangement on a magnetic wall that could be changed in a matter of minutes. Advances in customizable printing technology, like the hydrographic printing (also known as water transfer printing) technique Bernstein Display (New York) showcased, were also apparent throughout the show.

VMSD awarded five exhibitors for their outstanding presentations, including B+N Industries Inc. (Burlingame, Calif.); Bernstein Display (New York); Ace Designs (Bristol, Pa.); SFD (Watford, Hertfordshire, U.K.); and Sistemalux iGuzzini (Montreal).