Shop Marketplace Conference – Austin, TX

As the newest member of the Store Planning RDC team, as well as being the Southern California Chapter President of the Retail Design Institute, we decided my first market assignment was to have me pack my bags and attend the first major retail conference of 2023, Shop Marketplace in Austin, Texas. This is one of a handful of national retail trade conferences that gather people in the commerce industry to connect, educate and inspire one another to shape the future of retail and celebrate our successes. On a personal level, this was my first retail design show since 2020’s EuroShop in Dusseldorf, Germany, just as the global pandemic proved to be the major disrupter of our times, and I was eager to get out and see what I could experience.

It was my first time in Austin and, looking through the choices of lodging, one hotel that stood out to me was the Carpenter just down the street from Butler Metro Park where the convention was being held. The Carpenter is a beautiful example of adaptive reuse taking a mid-century modern one-story beige brick structure, formerly a carpenter’s union, and transforming it into an open-air compound, with multiple volumes, open-air gardens, and patios for dining and socializing.

The conference was a 3-day event hosted in the Palmer Events Center with over 60 exhibitors of fixture manufacturers, lighting companies, material finish vendors, art and visual merchants, and design consultants, like architects, engineers, and installers. There was also a presenter series followed by design awards.

The most impressive exhibitor booth was B+N Industries. Being one of the leading retail design agencies with a product line of modular display systems, it was no surprise that their booth stood out with its bright yellow color and streamlined design and lighting components.

The speaker that impressed me the most was Joe Lanzisero. Joe is a creative consultant and UX Designer based in Los Angeles who leads Disney’s creative executions for in-person user experience designing retail, hospitality, and attractions for the global Disney Imagineering Group. His presentation was about finding the story behind the brand’s core message that connects with its users emotionally. This resonates with all designers and is a reminder to develop the brand story early in the design process and connect it with an emotion that the end user can relate to and use that story narrative throughout the experience to make it memorable.

One of the most inspiring parts of the trip was Austin itself. There was a section of South Congress that has changed a lot in the past couple of years, with a couple of blocks being recently developed with mixed use of retail and restaurant with offices on the upper levels that has had a tremendous impact on the neighborhood. The retailers were national and international companies from athletic leisure wear to luxury giants like Hermes. Most of these store designs were bespoke to Austin’s casual and sunny aesthetic which was fun to see. Further up the street were more established and local brands that carried classic cowboy boots and hat brands (think Lucchese and Stetson). In another neighborhood, I stumbled upon the Yeti flagship store (the brand is based in Austin) which was a large industrial space filled with fun on-brand visual displays of trucks, flatbeds, and fishing boats as well as a stage ready for a musical performance. The indoor/outdoor café at the front completed the brand’s community hub positioning in its hometown HQ. I loved it!

Although the Shop Marketplace had an impressive turnout with vendors and suppliers from across the U.S. one notable exception was a lack of retailers in attendance. I only counted two that I knew personally. Retailer attendance and participation seem to continue to be a struggle nationwide post-pandemic and especially in the tough retail environment as 2023 has seen bankruptcies and layoffs. However, retail is always evolving and adapting. This is an exciting time to be in, and I believe we are in the midst of yet another real sea change in the retail industry. There will be winners and losers. However, ultimately what will come out on the other side will be a modern consumer experience that is relevant to the new generation of shoppers. An infrastructure built with resilience for fast-paced change and flexibility in this technology-driven era. As a retail designer, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to explore the possibilities at hand and have a role in developing the future of the consumer marketplace right here at RDC.