Designing Tomorrow’s Retail: Paul Conder on Crafting In-Store Experiences and Meeting Evolving Consumer Expectations in a Luxury World

Today’s guest is Paul Conder. Paul is the VP of Customer Experience at CallisonRTKL, the number one retail architecture and design firm in the world. In today’s episode, Paul discusses changes in the in-store environment, customer segmentation, and the consumer expectation of luxury. Listen in to hear what Paul has to say about whether the pandemic has accelerated certain trends, what brands and retailers should be avoiding right now, and the importance of understanding your customers now and in the future. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

✔ What Paul’s company does ✔ How it is to work with the brands Paul’s company works with ✔ Whether things have changed in the in-store environment ✔ Whether the pandemic has accelerated or deaccelerated processes ✔ Advice for smaller brands and retailers ✔ Advice for optimizing ✔ Areas that brands and retailers should avoid right now ✔ Favorite retail experiences ✔ Must-haves in creating a good in-store experience ✔ The importance of understanding your customer ✔ Tactical methods for segmenting customers ✔ Technologies that have been adapted more quickly than expected ✔ What the future of retail will look like

Resources: Paul Conder

QUOTES:

“Customers are setting the bar extremely high, not just in terms of the digital experience but also in terms of what actually happens in the store, in terms of the quality of service.” “There is a very small silver lining in our industry which is that it’s pushing people forward on things that they thought have been trends for ten years. “ “People’s expectations about luxury have changed a lot and it’s been really interesting to watch, but that’s not evenly distributed and it’s very different from country to country and from market to market.”