Economy will not necessarily be the Greatest Influence on Store Format Innovation.

As our economy struggles to get back in shape, what shape might new stores take? Will small store formats, such as Tesco’s new Fresh & Easy grocery stores, OfficeMax’s Mini Marts and the just announced Best Buy Mobile stores, take hold? Or will big box discounters continue to gain more ground? These are some of the essential questions explored in a recently released RetailWire.com/Dechert-Hampe report, “Retail Formats in Transition”, the results of the first in a new series of forward-looking studies entitled RETAIL:NEXT.

Not surprisingly, given the current recession, economic trends will be a big influence on which retail store formats will prosper and which will fade over the next few years, according to retail professionals responding to a late 2008 RetailWire.com/Dechert-Hampe survey. However, tight budgets will not be the only factor, and perhaps not even the most important influence on the types of stores retailers build. In fact, according to the study findings, consumer hankerings for convenience, attentive customer service and pleasant shopping environments may trump economic imperatives in driving where consumers choose to shop and, thereby, the design of retail spaces to come.

Here are some highlights of findings from the survey, conducted primarily via RetailWire.com, an online community of approximately 45,000 retail industry managers and executives:

Hope for overall growth:

Despite the current gloom, just over half (54 percent) of all respondents think the industry will experience modest or better growth over the next three years. And, interestingly, retailers were the most optimistic group, with 65 percent saying they expect “moderate growth” as compared to only 45 percent of manufacturers who felt that way.

Small, nearby and easy on the pocketbook:

Respondents forecast that the number of “small format grocery” and “neighborhood markets” along with “extreme discount/dollar stores” will increase sharply over the next three years – driven by such key factors as “value for money”, “convenient locations” and a “pleasant shopping experience.”

Retailers will not skimp on innovation:

Success will come to those retailers who create new and different formats. The selection of different retail formats available to consumers will expand, according to 46 percent of survey respondents. Only 25 percent see the numbers contracting.

Consumer experience will be the watchword:

In another indication that satisfying consumer wants and needs will be a big determinate in retail format design, the most successful retail concepts were predicted to be “quick/fresh small format grocery,” followed by “experiential stores” (e.g. Apple Stores) and then “mission focused stores,” which could be seen to be exemplified in OfficeMax’s new Mini Mart concept.

To download executive summary report CLICK on link below:
http://www.retailwire.com/Downloads/RetailFormats_ExecSum.pdf>