Welcome to the Independent Retail Store of the Future

The store is a 3D manifestation of what the customer has been promised through marketing, while providing an engaging, pleasant, and successful shopping experience for the customer, and delivering sales and margins that provide a profit. Post pandemic, research shows that while customers value the in-store experience and want to return to brick and mortar shopping, they want stores to do better on innovative use of the space for shopping and fulfillment. Retail stores are not solely destinations, but rather a physical space that provides the why, how, and where people shop. The store must fulfill a series of functions that reduce the physical space allocated to the presentation of merchandise. This course examines creating blended, flexible spaces that accommodate autonomy, convenience, education & engagement. This is hosted by the Retail and Entertainment Knowledge Community (REKC).