Retail & culture

First of all, my apologies to the regular reader for being off line for such a long time. I was extremely busy with off course retail and in the meantime switched jobs. Since a month I am working for the renowned retail (design) office Jos the Vries, where I have the privilege to work on some jobs in Russia and spread some retail knowledge.

How refreshing it is to dip yourself in a totally different shopping culture. You know there are cultural differences; I experience them as a foreign consumer quite often. But when you design shops for these other cultures you really get confronted with the differences. To design shops for these other cultures can therefore be a real ‘challenge’.

The catch is in the question of the client: ”Make for us just as good store like you have in the West. “ While your knowledge extensive and most of the time exceed that of these foreign retailers, the biggest danger is to forget respecting the local culture. Things are often like that for a reason, wether it is culture, the law or the system. Don’t forget that retail mirrors the society it serves.

For now I will bring a lot of ‘Western’ knowledge but I hope to see some interesting things that spark some reverse retail innovation here in the West.

And because I mostly bring news or interesting stuff  from the West I will now share a slideshow with some ‘inspiring’ foreign (depends on where you live) retail ideas.

Tags: culture, retail design, reverse innovation