Office Depot Debuts ‘Store of the Future’

BOCA RATON, FLA. – Office Depot’s latest store format is standing out to shoppers the second they walk through the front door. Visitors are greeted with a mostly white interior that includes red, black and gray accents. The sightlines are a far cry from the retailer’s other locations – nothing in the new format stands higher than five feet. “You can really see the whole store from the entrance,” says Carolina Raineau, Office Depot senior director, marketing strategy.The retailer in March completed a multiphase renovation of its Margate, Florida, store, turning the location into its “Store of the Future.” The title refers to the store prototype and ongoing project to change shoppers’ perception of the company’s brick-and-mortar offerings.With the Store of the Future, Office Depot is targeting customers who seek quality products and services as well as those who looking for more than a store, or an experience. “They wanted something more modern and ‘shoppable,’” Raineau says. “It is a very customer-centric store.”Spanning 15,000 square feet, the store is a slight departure from Office Depot’s average store size of 20,000 square feet. It carries a standard assortment of office services and supplies, which is curated to optimize the space.“We are more efficient category by category to showcase what [shoppers] need versus bringing everything under the sun,” Raineau says.Office Depot partnered with Dell Inc. to create the retailer’s first store-within-a-store model for computers and related products. Shoppers can stand at various tables to sample Dell PCs and laptops while various accessories are merchandised under the countertops.Next to Dell in the center of the store is a tech services center within a large glass cubicle. A mounted TV in the cubicle explains the various services offered at the store.The new store’s features are the result of Office Depot’s extensive research over the past couple years. The company had quantitative and qualitative analyses, including shadowing shoppers as well as conducting on-camera interviews about what they did and did not like about the standard Office Depot store.After a global search, Office Depot decided to work with longtime collaborator and retail design firm Big Red Rooster, Columbus, Ohio, on revamping the store’s look. (Big Red Rooster has since been acquired by global financial and professional services company JLL.)The goal was to “dimensionalize” the Office Depot brand and experience, says Big Red Rooster chief executive officer and co-founder Aaron Spiess. “We got rid of a lot of the visual clutter. It allows for better storytelling opportunities at the shelf level.”The firm and retailer decided to merchandise categories based on their product drivers and what is important to shoppers. For example, everything that is relevant to writing – notebooks, Post-Its, boards, pens and so forth – are merchandised in close proximity.In addition to aisle signs, the ink and toner and furniture departments are called out with large, brightly lit metallic letters. The furniture department is further set apart with a wood-panel wall complete with cutouts housing different office chairs.The store does not completely exclude features of the more traditional format. Within the refreshed look are spots for some account-specific endcap displays seen in its regular stores.The Store of the Future garnered favorable reaction in a test build-out model at the company’s Office Depot headquarters in Boca Raton. The success of the format continued once the Margate store was renovated.Although Raineau would not reveal the company’s financial budget for the Store of the Future, she said the location is delivering sales and traffic growth, tracking above target since its spring launch.In all the retailer plans to convert up to 24 locations this year to the Store of the Future model and possibly another 100 locations in 2017. “It’s a more productive space and a more productive retail experience for [Office Depot’s] target consumer,” Spiess says.

Office Depot Debuts ‘Store of the Future’

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