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IRDC: Retail is Not Dead

Keynote speaker Doug Stephens urges attendees to rethink stores’ role in today’s culture

Published

11 years ago

September 18, 2013

steve kaufman

Doug Stephens, Toronto-based consultant and author, declared yesterday that “retail is not dead!”

Speaking at VMSD’s annual International Retail Design Conference in Vancouver, B.C., Stephens urged a room full of attendees to rethink paradigms about how people today shop for merchandise and what role the store will continue to play in that cycle.

In fact, he said, “we’re entering a true golden age of retail.”

But retail executives and designers have to employ new tools, and follow new store metrics.

“Worshipping at the shrine of sales per square foot is over,” Stephens said.

VMSD will report in more detail on this and other IRDC events, on its web site and in the November and December issues of the magazine.

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