The creation of social retail spaces through the integration of omni-channel retail practices and branding

The brick and mortar environment has for many years been the cornerstone of the process to acquire goods. As a cornerstone of the process to acquire goods, the brick and mortar environment has undergone several evolutions each promising and serving as the pinnacle of what brick and mortar environments can be. Within the last two centuries those reincarnations have led to three recognizable forms. The first is the rise of the stand alone department store, a form made iconic by companies such as Macy's (originally R.H. Macy & Co) and S. H. Kress & Co (simply known as Kress). The stand alone department store then gave way to large big box retailers such as Target, Linens & Things, and Wal-Mart, however many of those department stores have reinvented themselves as the anchor stores of the newest incarnation of the brick and mortar environment, the shopping mall. The indoor mall has served as a platform through which to combine many of the previous forms of brick and mortar environments such as traditional single store fronts with large department stores.;Traditionally brick and mortar stores have only needed to compete with themselves and despite offering a wealth of advantages for consumers, consumers have began to use electronic commerce (e-commerce) as a secondary or primary way to acquire goods. This has been accelerated by the increasing consumer trust in e-commerce only retailers like Amazon or Alibaba. These competition elements have contributed to the total demise of many brick and mortar retailers or the extreme downsizing of some retailer's number of brick and mortar locations and even the widespread failure of many indoor shopping malls. The purpose of this study was to discover and detail how the careful design of the built environment can yield a viable and effective brick and mortar store design that presents itself as not only a place to complete the consumer process but serves as an indicator of a consumer's lifestyle.;To do this, the study was conducted in phases. The first phase was to create a knowledge base that could be used to build upon for a design solution. The first component of the base examined the current state of brick and mortar commerce and e-commerce. Secondly, as the chief competitor to brick and mortar is e-commerce, a platform had to be discovered or created that could successfully deliver those e-commerce elements. The platform was omni-channel retail. The third component of the base was to research the elements this author deemed was necessary to create a successful retail environment.;The second phase was to develop an original research component that provided the author a deeper insight. The original research component was predicated on the framework of the consumer purchase process; information gathering, product acquisition, and product support.;The third phase was to develop a program for design as well as completing the design of the retail store. The retail store was placed in a single storefront space located in a popular indoor mall in Tallahassee, Florida. As this author's approach was to ensure the brick and mortar environment would be part of the consumer's lifestyle, the product types chosen were those that are necessary for sports with a strong social component. The space contains products that are essential to the sports of cycling, running, and yoga.;This study determined that niche markets provide a home for brick and mortar stores as these markets contain the consumer base that is most likely to use the brick and mortar space beyond a venue in which to complete the consumer process. Consumers often purchase retail items that are an extension or indicator of their lifestyles and it is important that a retail space allow elements of this lifestyle to be expressed. This creates a renewed viability in the retail environment that importantly has no equal in the e-commerce environment.