CornerShop, the retail store of tomorrow

The world of retailing is facing fundamental transformation: increasingly digital, consumers expect their purchases to be enabled by seamless tech and underpinned by people and planet friendly principles. To help our retail clients thrive in this evolving context, we put our experience and capabilities together to design and launch a new hybrid retail experience and innovation concept store: CornerShop.

Inspired by the traditional British corner shop, the store supported retailers and brands to understand how digital innovation can enable new ways to evolve the customer experience, improve in-store operations and enable consumers to rediscover the joy of in-person retail, through exciting new options to engage and shop.

CornerShop not only enabled retailers and brands to ideate and test tomorrow’s shopping innovations, but also supported our clients to gain that all-important consumer feedback—from real customers in the heart of London.

Over the course of numerous live pop-ups, we tested and iterated over 30 new experiences and technologies. Here are five of the best concepts that we believe signal tomorrow’s shopping:

1. AI-enabled store staff solution
   
   Our world-first point of view enhances the in-store headset with a generative assistant. Aiding store managers and shop floor staff as they assist customers, troubleshoot issues and complete tasks, the headset upends traditional training models by providing on-demand support.
2. Functional AR
   
   Our AR point of view helps consumers navigate the complexity of shopping with purpose. In a test that proved incredibly popular with consumers, AR was overlaid onto shelving in which products are compatible with their specific shopping goals.
3. Sustainability via Dynamic Pricing
   
   Following our belief that technology can help minimise food waste, we ran an experiment using AI-based pricing that calculated the peak pricing for perishable products and tied this into real-time screen media to promote to customers.
4. Next-gen conversational commerce
   
   We have developed and tested a personalized and convenient solution that leverages GenAI to provide customers with meal inspiration, based on real-time availability of stock in-store, and populates their reserve and collect baskets accordingly.
5. Generative targeted in-store media
   
   We’re developing real-time, contextualized marketing that can be delivered at optimized moments to relevant audiences on in-store media. Leveraging GenAI to overcome complex business rules and workflows, it enables next-gen personalized experiences.

Over multiple pop-ups, CornerShop welcomed thousands of consumers and has helped hundreds of organizations reshape the future of their retail through cutting-edge ideation workshops.

CornerShop was widely featured in the press, including Forbes, ITN and BBC. The experiences we created spanned across the fashion, grocery, convenience and beauty sectors. We inspired, educated and guided some of the world’s greatest brands both in person and virtually.

The doors to CornerShop are now closed, however you can still get in touch to learn more about how we can help you deliver the future of retail.