THE 5 FUTURE INVARIANTS OF RETAIL DESIGN

Design & Technology to improve Shopping Malls & Retail Design relevance for the coming next years

The Dubai Mall, The New Village Lobby (Designed by MuchMore)

Create Impact

Let’s start with an assumption: “Shopping Malls & Retail Stores will never die”; everyone already knows how much is more important than ever for Shopping Malls, Retailers and Brands to enhance the Shopper Experience and to ensure customers come into the “brick-and-mortar” stores.

Christian Bonu Co-Founder and Director MuchMore - Architecture & Landscape

How we can do that?

Today, Design is evolving quickly and is giving us new possibilities to investigate unexpected scenarios; from a traditional approach by using our knowledge (Science and Art), by using algorithm and parametricism (Use of Data), or by using Artificial Intelligence (Images and Prompts). We are going to work and investigate new ways to “Create Impact” and a “WOW” effect, to engage customers in creating a memorable journey and a relevant experience.

Biophilic Design

First of all, we need to define Biophilic design to avoid confusion. It is a concept used within the Architecture and Interior Design industry connected to well-being. It increases human connectivity to the natural environment through the use of nature and is the way to decrease levels of blood pressure, depression and anxiety, job stress and illness, increased attention capacity and fast recovery.

Co-Founder and Director of “MuchMore - Architecture & Landscape”, Christian is a creative and innovative Interior Designer and Architect; who specialized in strategy and business development with more than 20 years of experience in Europe and the Middle East. He developed and managed Commercial and Retail projects from the small scale to the medium and big ones (The Village – Redesign & Extension, The Dubai Mall, is the latest Award Winning project - 2022).

Based on this assumption, we can understand quickly that the future reserve a great opportunity for Developers and Retailers who will invest in Architecture, Interior Design and Landscape integration, particularly those targeting younger generations who are more interested in sustainability, climate change and reducing emissions. For sure, Covid 19 has pushed the boundaries and now every one of us is more interested to stay and live in contact with nature. As designers, we need to be deeply focused on the integration of the Building Environment with the Landscape Environment. As an Architecture and Landscape oriented company, our last goal is to focus on the integration of these disciplines to give humans a healthy future.

Experiential Retail

If the Virtual World will push the actual boundaries of Retail Stores and Shopping Malls, physical space will continue to be crucial for human beings in the future.

The North Face & Gucci Pop-Ups

Study for the Interiors of a Future Grocery Shop using AI (Designed by MuchMore)

Study for the Interiors of an existing Shopping Mall using AI (Designed by MuchMore)

Experiential Retail will be one of the future invariants, offering to customers a chance of having fun with sound, ambience, live shows, emotion and activity to get customers interested in the merchandise with the mood to buy. For sure, it will be relevant to the integration with new media, AR and VR, but (I’m quite sure) we are not going to live on the Metaverse.

A remarkable example of Experiential Retail is Armani’s Acqua di Gio experience in two European airports (Stockholm and Frankfurt) where they propose a total detachment experience through sea sounds and images of perfumed dry air were released evoking the island of Pantelleria, inspiration for the perfume; or another one, Louis Vuitton Chengdu SinoCean Taikoo Li Store that offers a clear vision of an amazing Experiential Retail inspired from the Local Culture.

Louis Vuitton Chengdu Sino-Cean Talkoo Li Store

Phygital

It’s not new, the Real and Digital Worlds are continuously improving their connection and it is becoming clear and more tangible where we will go on in the near future.

As proof of this tendency, Dubai just opened a few days ago the first physical NFT shop in the Mall of the Emirates. ftNFT Shop is the name which offers customers to browse, buy and sell NFTs in person. Visitors can also interact with and look through a unique variety of physical art and even create 3D avatars of themselves through a professional 3D scanner.

The Virtual World, including the Metaverse and Augmented Reality, will play a central role in the evolution of the Retail Industry.

Our challenge as a Designer will be to re-think the Design Paradigm to connect the “two” worlds in one. An interesting example of the future possibilities for the Design is the experience that “Cult&Rain”, a shoe manufacturer, have brought to Outernet London; a fully interactive event bridging the physical world and the Metaverse by designing the shoes on the virtual store and doing the production on site. Another interesting example comes from the E-Commerce giant, Amazon, which redesign its groceries stores to be cashier-less and online-connected (Self-Service Kiosks, Mobile Checkout, Use of Artificial Intelligence, Incremental Mobile App and Direct Delivery Home).

Brand Partnership

Today we can assist more frequently in collaboration and partnerships between Brands to deliver greater value; companies come together and leverage each other’s strengths to drive innovation forward. Not only can all parties meet their commercial goals but more importantly consumers end up receiving much greater benefits and get to enjoy better services.

A relevant example in the Retail Industry is The North Face and Gucci Pop-Ups. The brand’s capsule collection with The North Face was on wish lists even before it debuted to a diverse group of creatives, superfans, and passersby hoping to get a glimpse of the immersive experience inside the brand’s Pop-Up around the world, from NYC to Dubai (Mall of Emirates).

With this article, we don’t have the ambition to be detailed and exhaustive. It is a contribution based on our vision and experience that needs to be explored, and why not, also with your support. Feel free to contact us to discuss further, to have new “Invariants” or just to have a coffee.