When a customer steps into your storefront, are they immediately engaged in your brand and compelled to buy? Does your store layout support the desired customer experience? Do you have the right design and flow that makes it easy and appealing for your customers? If not, then your in-store marketing is costing you money – and it’s time to reverse that trend.

Consumers today are more educated, more demanding, and have more options than ever before. It’s critically important for retailers to keep up with the ever-evolving consumer needs and stay top of mind. Adapting a new franchise model or updating your business space to meet these consumer demands can lead to projects as diverse in scope as they are in size. Executing the upgrade of a single element related to branding and signage programs - such as displays, store fixtures, or kiosks - can do wonders in terms of maximizing efficiency and enjoyment for consumers.

A recent benchmark survey by Retail Touch Points indicated that retailers continue to rethink their spaces after undergoing massive transformations in 2020 (57% of respondents said they renovated stores in some form last year). This trend is expected to continue well into 2021 with more than half of respondents planning to renovate the same number, if not more stores as compared to last year.

Whether it’s a simple signage upgrade or throwing out a tired blueprint in favour of a new, more relevant and contemporary image, the end goal remains the same: keeping up with consumer demands, and translating your brand into functional, useful retail experiences that connect consumers with your products in an easy, efficient, and memorable way.

Looking for some inspiration? In today’s modern retail, there are three notable trends that are catching the attention of consumers:

Experiential Retail – Extreme Branding and Consumer Engagement

One of the hottest retail trends in the last couple of years is creating a showroom-style retail environment, in which branding is exaggerated in a unique way. It’s innovative, interactive, and intentionally intriguing, drawing consumers in and allowing them to experience one-of-a-kind moments with the brand.

Quick Serve/Self-Serve (Digital integration)

Digital self-serve kiosks have become more and more mainstream in multiple environments due to increasing consumer demand. Self-serve checkouts at local grocery and hardware stores have been around for years, and now hospitality and entertainment venues have been adapting to this trend with digital kiosks that allow patrons to order food or movie tickets.

Marketing Communication

Taking advantage of every opportunity to talk to consumers, in a tasteful way, is a must these days. Retailers can relatively easily leverage storefronts for effective and impactful messaging. In the same vein as experiential retail, interesting and inviting visuals can be used to capture attention, pique curiosity, and turn a passer-by into a walk-in through eye-catching brand engagement.

Our world is different now and it continues to change rapidly. How people interact with brands in retail settings is definitely part of that changing landscape. Consumers are more informed, have more ways to shop and have more options than ever. Brand marketing is more complex than ever too, with the engagement between the brand and the consumer growing into a continuum that leads to the moment of purchase. This journey is now driven by the consumer, but the way in-store marketing weaves into the overall brand experience will drive purchase behaviour. If your brand isn’t motivating this relationship and creating positive interactions in your stores, it’s time to do something. Just look at your space and try to re-imagine what’s possible…

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About the Author

Kelly Macht has over 20 years of experience helping brands connect better with their clients. With an extensive background in sales, cultivating growth opportunities as well as client and stakeholder management, she helps to turn partner goals into fully supported and successful action plans.

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Design sketching – the process of visualizing concepts by hand can be a powerful tool. As designers, we love to sketch. It’s the excitement of creating something new and the opportunity a blank canvas presents. Design sketching is thinking visualized and helps our team to bring to life our client’s discussions, thoughts, ideas, and solutions right in front of their eyes. It is also a lot of fun for all involved – especially to those who are unpracticed – in the magic of watching ideas take form.

Often sketching is overlooked as an important stage in design development – in favor of jumping straight to computer-based approaches. But sketching allows for exploration and the fluidity of sketch allows one to move through ideas effortlessly. Its low fidelity means there is less friction in the process, and we don’t get hung up on details that are not important. Ideas have space to flow, and there is a momentum and energy created by sketching where to brainstorming process accelerates as visual feed into new ideas and back into new sketches. In client brainstorms, we encourage the unpracticed to sketch too! Design sketching is not about creating a beautiful image it is about exploring a beautiful idea.

In some cases, we use sketches to outline quick visuals of potential directions to clients in the design discovery stage. These sketches often match quite closely with the final result.

Sometimes the sketches are quick, gestural to provide feedback to our internal team – they capture the spirit of the project at hand.

Finally, we often use sketches to quickly explore concept directions to align a larger team of stakeholders on a direction for the project as with this Flagship TV showroom designed for Samsung.

From what we’ve described above, you can see why sketching is an important first step into the ideation phase of any project. To see some of the results, we’ve included some examples below. Surprisingly, those simple first sketches often turn out to be quite close to the final result.

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At Blake Jarrett, we live and breathe retail design. We understand the importance of the consumer journey, and meticulously design every last detail to deliver the best experience possible, no matter what the environment.  We’ve been busy working on one of the US Lotteries first to market flagship retail store for Washington State Lottery. The flagship store, The Department of Imagination, is located in Spokane, Washington.

It was a great honour to have the opportunity to take this retail store design from concept through to completion. Working on a team of experts across the industry, the Blake Jarrett team designed, engineered and manufactured the “Department of Imagination”, showcasing a new and innovative, best-in-class approach to lottery retail design. The intention of the space was to allow consumers a spot to learn about the lottery, play and redeem winning tickets in a fun dynamic environment.

The Blake Jarrett team was commissioned by Washington’s Lottery, through Wunderman Thompson, to design and outfit the new “Dept of Imagination” retail store. Impressed by Blake Jarrett’s previous work in the lottery industry, Washington’s Lottery was eager to collaborate with a trusted partner to help shape the strategy behind this innovative space.

The Washington’s Lottery Department of Imagination features digital, interactive and graphic menu boards throughout the store. The high visibility of these key features continues to draw in consumers both reoccurring and new.

In conjunction with Washington’s Lottery, IGT, Wunderman Thompson, NCI, Optika Display, and Carmanah, the Blake Jarrett team led the new store build project from its conceptual design phase through to store completion, loaning our industrial/retail design and manufacturing expertise to the development of a new innovative lottery space.

Inspired by the notion that the Department of Imagination store needed to become a destination as opposed to a ‘quick stop’ for the lottery consumer, the Blake Jarrett team worked with the other project partners to develop a cohesive strategy for the build that made the best sense for the brand and that would create an environment with staying power.

Imagination Tables equipped with COVID-19 acrylic shields & hand sanitizer station for consumer safety considerations. Interactive touch screen for consumers to enjoy an in-store lottery experience.

The store design captures interactive-touch screen technologies, a ‘Winners Lounge’ and a beautifully crafted display case which has the capacity to display the Lottery’s full selection of full-size tickets, as well as a Featured tickets area. This immersive space allows the current lottery consumers to come to enjoy the lottery that they love, but also rediscover it in a new way.

The Service Area (above) integrates the illuminated scratch ticket display case, lottery branding and fully dynamic menu board system. Meticulous detail was considered to accommodate all of the POS, peripherals, accessibility requirements and ticket inventory considerations.

Since the store opened during the pandemic, the Blake Jarrett team designed a sophisticated, custom COVID-19 safety solutions kit. This included high-quality branded acrylic shields for all counters and imagination tables, hand sanitizer stations, and safety wayfinding graphics to ensure proper social distancing. Prioritizing consumer well-being, the team focused on creating a safe and comfortable environment as an integral part of the overall experience.

To date, the store has exceeded expectations, achieving up to 3.6 times the projected weekly sales—despite the retail challenges posed by the pandemic.

Returning customers and new visitors alike have expressed their curiosity and excitement about the store’s fresh design and overall aesthetic. Their engagement with both the lottery offerings and the innovative space has played a key role in the store’s incredible success.

At Blake Jarrett, we’re thrilled to see what the first year holds for this unique retail space. We’re truly grateful to have been part of this amazing journey and look forward to our next collaboration with Washington’s Lottery!

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At Blake Jarrett, we understand the importance of staying relevant in a constantly changing retail landscape. As a trusted, longtime manufacturing partner for OLG, with proven success in developing their flagship retail kiosks, Blake Jarrett was once again approached by OLG to develop an innovative solution, and to re-imagine Lottery Retail as their fleet of Playstands were aging in today’s digital world.

The Blake Jarrett team was commissioned by OLG to modernize the customer experience through digital innovation in a custom retail display. The new playstand needed to engage customers through digital interaction while also providing new marketing and gaming opportunities to enhance their experience. Equally important was ensuring the playstand’s functionality and durability in a high-traffic environment, as well as making it fully accessible to align with current design standards and AODA compliance.

Blake Jarrett’s smart, modular design allowed for easy updates throughout its lifespan, keeping ongoing costs low while accommodating evolving technology and new product launches.

At Blake Jarrett, we understand the importance of refining the consumer journey from start to finish. OLG entrusted us with reimagining the customer experience in its field operations, and we partnered with them as a full-service provider from concept to completion. Our team led the entire process, including research, design, engineering, prototyping, manufacturing, shipping, and installation of the first-to-market digital playstand. Throughout the project, we worked closely with OLG, walking them through design rationale, gathering feedback, and fostering a truly collaborative partnership.

Modularity was the core of our design philosophy. By allowing OLG to swap out components in the field, the playstand could be deployed in either a digital configuration (featuring a touchscreen display) or a manual configuration (with an illuminated static graphic). At key stages of the design process, we developed physical mockups to refine our vision: full-size foam-core mockups for ergonomics and styling, MDF mockups for user testing and final design approval, miniature functional mockups for stakeholder engagement, and first-off production units to perfect every detail.

The unit was designed with all customers in mind and to comply with upcoming AODA accessibility legislation. The writing surface was designed at an accessible height. Significant areas of the interactive touchscreen were at an accessible height and a touchpad was integrated into the body of the writing surface so that maximum flexibility was provided for customers to receive an amazing experience.  

Materials were selected for manufacturing that ensure a durable product with a long functional life, but also so that the units can be recycled or repurposed at their end of life. 96% of the playstand by weight is recyclable using standard recycling methods. 

End result, Blake Jarrett delivered an innovative solution to Lottery Retail which enhanced the customer experience. THE OLG digital playstand is innovative, modular, ergonomic, and accessible in over 2,000 locations.

Many thanks to the OLG Team for the collaborative effort in bringing this to life.

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At Blake Jarrett, we thrive on a good design challenge. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching a simple doodle transform into a real, tangible experience that consumers can interact with and enjoy.

Superette, Toronto’s hottest new cannabis shop—and our client—gave us one of the biggest highs yet, as we saw our retail design concepts come to life in a big way! Co-founder Drummond Munroe had a clear vision for his retro-inspired cannabis shops. With their first location on Rideau Street in Ottawa already a success, he saw an opportunity to refine the design for future stores and elevate the cannabis retail experience even further.

After a few inspiring conversations, Blake Jarrett was selected as Superette’s retail design partner to help bring this vision to life. We delivered just that with their latest store on Yonge Street in Toronto’s Summerhill neighborhood—setting the stage for even more to come.

he inspiration for the store design stemmed from Drummond’s bold vision of blending a retro diner, supermarket, and flower shop aesthetic—an unconventional approach for cannabis retail. While the cannabis sector was new to Blake Jarrett, our team was eager to take on the challenge. With a clear vision in place, we knew the journey from concept to completion would be both exciting and rewarding.

Collaborating with Dani Hall of Design of Brand (DOB) and Trevor McArthur of CMG, we encountered our fair share of unconventional ideas. In custom display manufacturing, there’s often a natural tendency to default to traditional solutions, but we were fortunate to be part of a team committed to excellence and innovation. Together, we crafted a truly unique retail experience.

From bud flower walls and digital menu kiosks to island coolers and merchandise fixtures, working with Superette taught us to expect the unexpected. A perfect example? The digital menu kiosks. While we’ve designed and manufactured countless modern digital kiosks for industries like entertainment, retail, and lottery, we had never been asked to create one that looked like an old-school cigarette machine—chunky, vintage, and full of character!

The ultimate cannabis retail experience at Superette is embodied in the flower wall—a standout feature designed to resemble a bodega flower shop. Our team was tasked with creating an interactive, educational, and visually striking bud flower wall that would serve as the focal point of the store.

Nestled within this stunning display are 24 custom-designed bud pods, carefully engineered to showcase the bud flowers in a secure yet interactive way. Each clear pod features discreet holes, allowing customers to experience the distinct aroma of each strain. To enhance the experience, the pods are attached to retractable wires, enabling customers to pick them up and engage with the product up close. This whimsical, hands-on approach makes the cannabis shopping journey both fun and informative. Additionally, each pod is equipped with its own humidity pack to ensure the buds remain fresh and aromatic at all times.

Since the Yonge Street location opened, the flower wall and digital menu kiosk have generated significant buzz, earning coverage in articles and social media posts across the cannabis retail sector. For the Blake Jarrett team, this project is a shining example of how we transform big ideas into reality with exceptional execution.

At Blake Jarrett, we take pride in bringing visionary concepts to life, and Superette exemplifies this—from doodles to final execution. Mission accomplished!

A huge thank you to the entire Superette team for bringing us in on this exciting project. This marks our largest retail design, custom display, and in-store fixture project in the cannabis industry to date, and we look forward to collaborating on future innovations!

  All photos credit K Rocca via Superette.

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