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Some 2025 retail design trends are easy to predict; for example, it\u2019s a good bet that artificial intelligence (AI) will play a starring (or at least supporting) role. But we wanted to dig a bit deeper, so Retail TouchPoints<\/em> interviewed two<\/strong> top execs from Arcadis<\/strong>, Principal Cindi Kato-Yokoyama and Principal and Experience Design Services Lead Paul Conder, to provide more depth and color to the forecast. They identified four<\/strong> big trends for the coming year:<\/p>\n Retail TouchPoints (RTP): How are you defining experience design, and why is it so important to today\u2019s shopper journey?<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Paul Conder: <\/strong>Most design fields start and end with the final product: architecture is always about the building, interior design is about that interior, industrial design is about the product. Everyone concerned thinks about the user\u2019s experience, but not until the end.<\/p>\n Experience design is about considering that end user\u2019s experience first<\/em> \u2014 and collaborating across all those other channels to create it.<\/strong> That [definition of experience design] aligns with retail, because no one is having a [retail] experience in just the store\u2019s interior any more. It used to be that someone would come in and buy something and leave, so the interior retail space kind of \u2018owned\u2019 the whole experience. But we know that\u2019s not the case anymore.<\/p>\n People get educated from online experiences; they get drawn in by social media. There\u2019s often a heavy service component, and a lot of places mix hospitality and retail experiences, so you\u2019re getting different verticals and fields of expertise tied together. And there are other areas of the brand that will connect with the customer after the purchase. So how do we create a straight line through that? That\u2019s basically what experience design is in a retail context. It\u2019s akin to the changes in healthcare: going to the doctor today isn\u2019t just about going to the doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n When [experience design] is humming along really well, it also can help customers make memories, if the brand can align the experience to a bigger story. Experience design also can help people make the right choices; for example [by providing] education at the right moment in the shopper journey. Experience design is about building loyalty, telling brand stories, creating moments that make memories and creating engagement versus just experiences.<\/p>\n Cindi Kato-Yokoyama: <\/strong>A lot of experience design is tied to innovation and future thinking as well. Some brands we work with are thinking about how [an experience] could morph in five or 10<\/strong> years. And it can be a point of differentiation.<\/p>\n RTP: AI dominated the discussions at the recent NRF Big Show in New York City. Where do you see it having the biggest impact in terms of retail design?<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Kato-Yokoyama: <\/strong>I think people will be using AI to educate and train customer-facing employees, because that\u2019s what\u2019s been lost in terms of brand experiences. Customers traditionally went to [an employee] for expertise in whatever product they were selling. Now, retailers are using AI to train their people about products, with that information instantly at their fingertips. That promotes a sense of confidence in these team members, makes them more efficient and productive \u2014 and it helps them not to be afraid of AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n Conder:<\/strong> AI\u2019s biggest potential impact is in supply chain optimization, because anticipating what needs to be where, and when, is still very complex, so AI can help with that a lot. In terms of supporting store staff, AI can remove a big barrier to personalization in physical retail, which is about getting the right piece of information<\/em> to the right person at the right time. AI can support better interactions between two<\/strong> people, and on a bigger scale, it should help improve marketing targeting. I\u2019d like to think it will eliminate spam, but it probably won\u2019t. However, the stuff that does get through to customers that is meaningful to them will probably be even more meaningful with AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n RTP: You\u2019ve said you\u2019re seeing an expanded role for collaborations. What forms is this taking?<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Conder: <\/strong>It used to be that when we would design a store, we would talk to the construction and store design people, and that was basically it. But I just did a workshop with a client where we had marketing, communications, operations, a dedicated CX (customer experience) person that we partnered with, and even digital providing representation<\/strong>. It\u2019s all about figuring out the experience and how the brand will realistically connect with the customer, so we partner with a much wider array of consultants, including people in the social sciences. It\u2019s an interesting world of interdisciplinary design \u2014 none of them are doing less [than they used to]; we\u2019re all doing a little more.<\/p>\n Kato-Yokoyama: <\/strong>When we worked with Petco<\/strong> we worked with a pet psychologist, and we had a lot of meetings for [design elements] that were specific to pets, which helped us enhance the design \u2014 down to finishes, sounds and even the smells in the store.<\/p>\n RTP: Are you seeing signs that designers and retailers are getting more serious about sustainability?<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Conder: <\/strong>Retail centers are doing a lot of work with this, particularly when they\u2019re trying to create actual mixed-use communities. These are often big enough that [the center operators] can have an impact on more than one project, and many are stepping up. For instance, if you could save money on the air conditioning for a retail center, imagine what that\u2019s worth. Sustainability is the right thing to do, and there are incentives built in, and people are looking at the ability to have a financial impact more quickly.<\/p>\n Kato-Yokoyama: <\/strong>A lot of retailers are looking at their physical footprint in terms of things like the accessibility of transit and whether people have the ability to walk to the location. When we do master planning, we\u2019re looking at the makeup of transportation and how it relates to malls or other types of retail venues.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n