Global Trends: The New Experiential Retail by GDR Creative Intelligence

Ever since e-commerce started challenging the dominance of physical retail with its ultra-convenience, endless choice and seamless purchasing options, bricks-and-mortar stores have looked for ways to offer customers something they can’t get online.

Experiential retail has become a key tactic in recent years (as well as an overused buzzword) as retailers have used the theatre of surprise and delight to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

In this report we explore what we consider to be a significant maturation of this approach. In many ways, the examples we use are more functional than what we’ve come to expect from traditional experiential retail, yet in this way they become more meaningful for the consumers. These examples are less about creating unique and unforgettable branded experiences, and more about creating product trials and paths to purchase that are rooted in the real-world contexts in which the products are actually used.