Over the past three years, we have teamed up on a number of seminars and webinars about best practices in retail visual display. If attendance at our June AmericasMart’s Apparel Mart webinar program is any indicator, audiences are appreciating our unique perspective. They are drawn to our combined expertise in trend forecasting, licensing, marketing and retail buying.
Many of you may already be aware of our interest in visual merchandising. However, you may not know that we have teams around the globe, who are tasked with retail reconnaissance. These local experts are deployed by us throughout the year, but especially during seasonal events. Their mission is to explore holiday assortments and displays, and to document unique items and clever packaging. Some team members focus on comp shops or specific categories. We curate thousands of their images annually to provide observations, analysis and details to client companies.
Our goal is to utilize our breadth and depth of retail sources to craft an inclusive view of retail, with touchpoints on multiple continents. A recent Halloween recap, for example, included 150 stores on six continents.
With stores and shops around the globe having been closed for so long, we were anxious to get our retail-reconnaissance teams into the field as soon as possible. The first images have been coming in from a number of cities, including Paris.
With so much months-old inventory on hand, you might expect retail everywhere to be filled with dusty items at clear-the-decks prices. At some Paris stores, that was clearly not the dominant message. Instead of sad-looking stacks of clearance items, there was fresh inventory and even fresher visual displays to make sure it got noticed. The result was an uplifted mood.
We especially love the optimism expressed at Le Bon Marché last week. Giant white dots on a palette of brightly colored backgrounds were found bouncing along escalators, wrapping columns, covering awnings and creating a backdrop for messages on signs of all sizes. Here is a look at Le Bon Marché’s energizing visual-display concept:
To learn more about how we can tailor retail reconnaissance and/or comp shops to your needs, message Leigh Ann Schwarzkopf or Michelle Lamb on LinkedIn. To find out more about The Trend Curve‘s color and design forecasts, follow @trendcurve on Instagram.