Competition in the retail space comes from many different areas, and the shops that thrive are well-maintained, are competitive and provide something that other retailers simply cannot.

These three aspects converge into what is often described as a brand experience, and this is what separates the most successful retailers from those who might be struggling more in the marketplace.

Brand experience is crafting your store experience to ensure that customers feel what you want them to feel about your product and create a positive impression that will spread. It often leads to increased sales, but if it does not right away, it increases the probability of success in the future.

Probably the most influential success when it comes to brand experience is Apple, who pivoted to minimalism in every aspect of their business starting with Steve Jobs’ return in 1997 and extending that to the unique sparse look of Apple stores.

A successful pivot to focus more on brand experience can be seen with JD Sports, which leaned fully into the athleisure market and focused its brand experience on appealing to people enthusiastic about sports fashion, particularly sneaker collectors.

A brand experience does not necessarily have to be this stark and can include colour schemes, iconography, product layouts and pieces of experiential marketing, all of which are intended to make your audience feel a particular way about your store.

The types of retailers that have found themselves in trouble are those that have found it more difficult to pivot to offering a brand experience.

The most infamous example of this is Toys R Us. Whilst the difficulties that led to their bankruptcy are more complex and murky, one major issue they had was an inability to provide a brand offering in an omnichannel consumer world.

The Entertainer, Smyths Toys and the Disney Store all have very specific and unique selling points that engage young consumers, whilst Toys R Us was a large warehouse full of products but no identity beyond that.