This might not involve any convertibles, speed boats, or toupees… but brick and mortar is facing a midlife crisis.

E-commerce sales are skyrocketing, while in-person shopping revenue isn’t keeping pace with inflation.

  • In Q4 2023, in-store sales dollars increased 1.44% while e-commerce sales increased 19.5%.

74% of Gen Z consumers opt for mobile shopping, with 68% making purchases more than four times a week.

Solar panels, glow-in-the-dark toilet paper, bluetooth-enabled toasters, hitmen — pretty much anything can be bought online. The result? Shoppers no longer need to show up in person; brands have to make them want to.

The era of passive, product-centric physical retail is dead. Here to replace it is multidimensional retail: a new approach brimming with AI, AR, digital content, and immersive design. No minor tweaks or cosmetic changes; what we’re seeing is a comprehensive redo of the entire physical shopping experience.

We’ve examined some of the most innovative new models for retail space, from a state-of-the-art basketball training lab in Chicago to an experimental exhibition in Seoul. What we’ve found is a wide range of inspirations, including ideas from museums, theater, omakase, and more. These unexpected influences are challenging what we think we know about in-person shopping and helping to reshape the retail landscape.

Steal from museums 

Top brands have been collaborating with visual artists and museums for years. The recent Nike exhibit at the Centre Pompidou, for example, celebrated the history of sports and the evolution of the Air Max. But that’s nothing compared to the retail brands replicating the museum experience in their store design.

Nike Art of Victory exhibition Centre Pompidou, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo by Farzaneh Khademian /ABACAP/ Alamy Stock Photo

In its Edge of the Sea pop-up in Shanghai, the luxury cosmetics brand La Mer created an installation of “galleries” organized like an art exhibit. Visitors were greeted with informational text and a series of archways, covered in projections of undulating waves, that they could walk through to enter the store. Once inside, there were more digital projections of seascapes, a floating silk sculpture, a panorama of glass bottles, and more.

Having designed museums and cultural spaces from Ontario to Oman, we know firsthand how these kinds of exhibits can engage attention and create a lasting impression.

Digital projections and intentional design allow museumgoers — or luxury skincare shoppers — to appreciate a more nuanced narrative, whether that’s an immersive retelling of the history of Blackpool, England, or the history of a skin cream formula in the La Mer pop-up.

Showtown Blackpool Immersive stories by Journey, exhibition design by Casson Mann.

The La Mer experience and others of its kind prove how a seamless, hybrid retail experience — one that makes use of the kind of digital-physical media installations familiarized in museums — can generate massive results. (In this case, the brand saw one billion social media impressions and 20,000 visitors in ten days.)

World building as theatrical experience

Walk into Gentle Monster’s flagship location, Haus Dosan in Seoul, and you’d hardly know it sells glasses. There are only a few dozen pairs of sunglasses throughout the entire five-story building, which includes an enormous atrium with kinetic art exhibitions. 

Art installation inside of Gentle Monster, San Jose, California, December 2, 2023. Photo: Gado Reportage / Alamy Stock Photo

Each location of the Gentle Monster brand is a carefully crafted world unto itself, with high-tech video walls and provocative design concepts. Each one is also themed, sometimes inexplicably: The New Jersey location features animatronic bison, Costa Mesa centers on the evolution cycle of a plant, and Singapore includes installations of giant ants, eyes, and robots.


The drama of a good window display is nothing new, but an immersive shopping design is another thing altogether. Theatrical environments like the Gentle Monster stores invite customers to lose themselves in the experience — and keep coming back for more. (It’s the same principle behind our immersive design in the Lift 109 experience, where media, soundscapes, and animations bring the story of the Battersea Power Station to life in a memorable and interactive way.)

Fashion brands are offering similar experiences. Prada’s AW22 show in Beijing was staged in a 400-year-old former royal mansion — but it blended that real-world luxury and historic setting with a digital activation. The futuristic simulation of the fashion show, held on the social app XIRang, made it possible for anyone to “attend” the exclusive event.

(See also: the Louis Vuitton show held under a bridge in Seoul and the Jacquemus giant bathroom installation, complete with enormous toothpaste tube and giant fizzing pill, at Selfridges in London.)

Omakase it 

Just as an omakase meal puts your culinary fate in a chef’s hands, allowing them to curate the dishes they serve to you, retail spaces are carefully crafting individual experiences for their shoppers.

Consider the brands successfully offering a tasting menu for shoppers:

  • Sephora: In-store makeovers and expert consultations, paired with a virtual try-on app that tracks the products used.
  • Nordstrom: Free personal styling sessions at the flagship store in New York.
  • Selfridges: An old-school approach with a barber shave, a meal, and drink pairings.
  • Phenotype: One-of-a-kind patterns and apparel created through a “subconscious design” process that measures shoppers’ brainwaves with neurological algorithms.

From private appointments to custom apparel, the research supports the approach: 90% of consumers say that personalized experiences directly impact how much money they’ll spend on a brand. At the same time, a McKinsey study shows that only 23% of consumers think retailers are doing a good job in their personalization efforts — and only 15% of brands have fully implemented their personalization strategies.

Done right, it’s a way to lure loyal customers away from online shopping and back to the kind of experiences they can only enjoy in person.

Flex the tech 

Technology in retail is nothing new. Warby Parker’s website lets you model glasses on your own face; IKEA helps you visualize what their furniture will look like in your home. Big tech has served up self-checkouts, customer service chatbots, and even autonomous inventory robots that can verify price signs at your local big box store.

But a newer generation of hybrid physical-virtual stores are using technology to add novelty and excitement to the shopping experience. AR try-on platforms like Zero10 and Tiffany Magic Mirrors allow customers to stand in front of a digital mirror and see themselves wearing a brand’s clothing and jewelry. AI-powered personalized shoppers curate picks based on individual tastes, preferences, and budgets, like Net-a-Porter’s AI-powered platform, which analyzes customer data to suggest personalized luxury fashion recommendations. 


Savvy brands are also starting to integrate digital twins into their retail design practice. These virtual replicas will help designers optimize store layouts and customer flow — and they’ll help customers preview and navigate stores from home, offering seamless integration between online browsing and in-store perusing.

We’ve discussed the reinvention of old shopping malls as performance venues, green farms, retirement communities, and more. As we explain, much of this creative reuse relies on technology to pack its punch.

The best brands will use their technology to free up their employees for more tailored customer interactions. Imagine in-store workers as brand ambassadors or concierges — or even museum docents. No longer stuck behind the counter processing returns, they’ll be available to offer personalized help and suggestions whenever the customer needs them.

Activate and create 

The decline of mall culture — plus the pervasive loss of third spaces — has been going on for years. Now, retail is revitalizing many abandoned urban spaces and putting them to better uses in their communities.

In Chicago, the Jordan Store at 32 South State Street offers a great example. Its training lab for local high school athletes includes digital training stations, a workout facility, and a basketball court for tournaments. Community members can show up to play or cheer on young athletes and walk away with a new piece of gear. Or they can visit the store’s customization booth to personalize their Jordan Brand apparel with vinyl applique, patches, and printed images.

The family store CAMP hosts immersive experiences in partnership with children’s entertainment brands like Trolls, Bluey, and Disney. Kids can show up to explore imaginative, interactive play spaces and leave with new toys, games, and outdoor equipment.

Museums have already used gamification (including puzzles, scavenger hunts, and quizzes) to successfully engage visitors, and the same approach promises to make shoppers active participants in retail. It’s shifting the idea of stores from mere points of sale into community hubs that foster connection, activity, and engagement.

Brick and mortar isn’t going anywhere. It just needs a MDX overhaul 

The savviest retail brands understand that brick-and-mortar spaces have to evolve beyond mere product showcases — and beyond the traditional dichotomies of physical and digital retail. It’s not the online shopping cart versus the mall storefront; it’s the alchemy that comes when stores blend physical, virtual, and immersive design into multidimensional experiences (MDX).

At its best, multidimensional retail will bring us beyond transactions into the realm of transformation. By taking cues from AI, AR, digital content creation, and immersive design, the retailers of tomorrow can avoid the midlife crisis. In doing so, they’ll transform their spaces into experiences that spark curiosity, engage the senses, and foster connections.

To learn more about Journey’s vision for the future of venues, download our white paper here: