#WeLoveRetail and 4 More Reasons Why We Can’t Wait for GlobalShop

With 2 days left until the big GlobalShop 2015 Show in Vegas, we’re so jazzed. Because here at Applied Advertising, #WeLoveRetail.
 

To say GlobalShop is a Store Design, Planning, and Merchandising Expo is like saying…

… that Paris Fashion Week is a showcase for pretty outfits. Or that the Indy 500 is a place where cars go fast. It’s kind of an understatement, you know? Because, really, it’s kind of a big deal.

After all, it’s the largest annual event in the world for retail design and shopper marketing. With the show floor divided into five sections – store fixturing, visual merchandising, store design and operations, digital store, and at-retail marketplace – it literally has it all.

So, obviously, like everybody else who impacts the customer experience – as many as 12,000 attendees expected later this month – GlobalShop is one of our favorite shows.

The networking alone is invaluable, not to mention the chance to stay ahead of the trend. These days, the leading edge moves forward at light speed, especially around digital and virtual capabilities and their intersection with “traditional” brick and mortar. That’s why this year’s Centerpiece Exhibit is so compelling—the future is already here. And, the physical store of the future is anything but traditional.
 

Centerpiece Exhibit – The Path to Purchase, Destination: Bricks and Mortar

Surely by now, you’ve seen the #InnovationUndercover video from Fast Company with Rebecca and Uri Minkoff? You know, the one featuring the smart mirrors with the eBay tech cooked in? In it, host Jason Feifer steps us through the “store of the future” and bemoans the absence of fine scotch from the hospitality options. That’s the only absence you’ll see in this store in this carefully curated, thoughtfully integrated Manhattan fashion landmark.

You can expect similar innovations and technological wizardry at the GlobalShop Centerpiece Exhibit: Path to Purchase. Because, as they point out, 90% of retail journeys still end in a retail store. Even those that begin online.

In Path to Purchase, the show runners have crafted a chance for retailers, store planners, and store designers to get hands-on play and experience with the “rapidly converging worlds of e-commerce technology and the physical store environments.” To engage with actual and available products and services within seven themed sections, including a few close to our heart, like showrooming solutions and signage, graphics, and wayfinding. Plan your route with their special section in design:retail’s digital magazine.

As a leading provider of custom installations and a growing design lab in our own right, we’re always excited to see the how it all comes together. Inspiration, imagination, innovation, elbow grease, good old-fashioned hard work and an unforgettable customer experience.

 
While GlobalShop cracks the code and optimizes the path, we’re already paving it.
 

PAVE Opening Night Bash

As you probably know, Planning and Visual Education Partnership (PAVE) – pronounced “pah-vay,” like diamonds, dahling – is an educational non-profit dedicated to growing the talent pool of the future and fostering professional development in retail design, planning, and merchandising. An arm of the Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E), PAVE’s programs include internships, design competitions, scholarships, grants, and much more.

They’re hosting the opening night shindig and all proceeds from this not-to-be-missed evening will benefit their programs. And, that benefits all of us in the industry. Keep that top talent coming, PAVE.

They’ve completely reinvented that famous PAVE event experience for GlobalShop attendees. PAVE Board Member Harry Cunningham, head of store development for Vera Bradley, shares some of their plans with design:retail magazine, “Expanding our reach is key to our goal of helping even more students, and there’s no better way than by hosting GlobalShop’s opening night party. We’re looking forward to a great night at Light Nightclub. The only nightclub ‘turned on’ by Cirque du Soleil.” That’s right, Cirque du Soleil will be performing throughout the night. Three times. You’re going to want to #lategram this.
 

POPAI’s Outstanding Merchandising Achievement (OMA) Awards

This award show is like the Oscars for us. It’s the premier award show to recognize outstanding achievements in in-store and point of purchase displays. Those innovative and effective “marketing programs that lift sales, make products memorable, and entice consumers to purchase products.” Categories include Design of the Year, Creative, and Budget. A fourth award goes to the design chosen by GlobalShop attendees.

Unlike the Oscars, OMA Statuettes come in Gold, Silver, and Bronze. 2015 is a special year for the statuette – its fiftieth anniversary. Winners will take home a commemorative statuette designed specially to celebrate this achievement.

We wish good luck and glad congratulations to all entrants in the competition and thank them for their continuing contributions to the field.
 

Tell us. Have you ever been to GlobalShop? What are your favorite parts?