Top 'In-Store Experience' Stories from July
Whole Foods, Lowe's, Hy-Vee and others unveiled store initiatives and updates last month.
A number of retailers (and brands) unveiled store initiatives and enhancements in July. Some notable headlines included:
- Whole Foods gave an update on its smaller store format. The first two Whole Foods Market Daily Shop will open in New York, the first debuting this fall on the Upper East Side.
- Lowe’s expands in-store media with audio ads. Marketers can now buy and launch targeted, programmatic audio ads across the retailer’s locations through Lowe’s One Roof Media Network.
- Walgreens’ Advertising Group (WAG) announced it would pilot digital in-store signage in select stores across 30 states this fall. The move comes as the retailer is focusing on advancing its digital in-store brand solutions as store closures loom.
- Hy-Vee rolls out digital shelf labels at most stores. The grocer tapped VusionGroup to digitize and reduce waste at stores, which are now able to update product prices and data automatically and in real time.
- Schnuck Markets is integrating Instacart’s Carrot Tags software solution with its electronic shelf labels hardware chainwide. The midwestern grocery chain will leverage Carrot Tags’ pick-to-light functionality at most stores, enabling Instacart couriers to activate items from their picking list within the Instacart app to trigger a flash on the corresponding ESL.
- Wakefern Food Corp. rolls out more AI-powered smart carts from Instacart at its stores. ShopRite stores in the Philadelphia area and Price Chopper and McKeever's Market & Eatery stores in Missouri deployed Caper Carts.
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- U.K. supermarket Morrisons added impulse-buy displays to its self-service checkout areas. The enhanced displays particularly promote health and beauty products.
- Bacardi’s Patron unveils sensory experience in Canada. An immersive 88-by-88-foot dome in Canada was first set up in Montreal and then Toronto, and featured live DJ sets and 360-degree visuals of Mexico landscapes.
- Harbour City, Hong Kong’s largest mall, debuts sprawling consumer experiences, art installations. The experiences will last through Sept. 1, and include artistically designed, sports-themed activity areas, such as an outdoor boxing ring, to lure in consumers.
- L’Oreal Paris launched an innovative hair color device and line of cartridges, dubbed Colorsonic, exclusively at Target. The beauty brand worked “hand in hand” with the Target store merchandising team to develop a display/in-store experience that “shakes up the hair color aisle.”
- Toys R Us will open branded toy shop-in-shops within Navy Exchange stores. The first shop at NEX will open this fall, ahead of the holiday season, with additional stores to follow in 2025.
