Ep. 059: How Vera Bradley Designs a Modern-Day Retail Experience

I’m joined by Harry Cunningham, vice president of retail brand experience at Vera Bradley, to discuss what goes into designing modern-day brick-and-mortar stores that appeal to consumers. Harry explains some of the driving forces behind Vera Bradley’s redesign of their storefronts (5:45), and the steps taken when embarking on designing a new store concept (8:45). Harry explains how the store design revolves around solving shopper challenges (10:30) and how they used data to uncover some shopper opportunities (13:00). Next, Harry discusses how they factor generational cohorts into their store concepts (14:15), how they balance online and physical interaction for in-store shoppers (16:55), and how much the local community impacts the overall store design (18:00). Next, Harry explains the role of technology in the in-store experience, from balancing technology with traditional store principles (24:00) to how they incorporated VR into their stores, and how they view this technology as a future component of in-store retail (25:15). He’ll share how they know when a design update is needed (30:30), his insights into what he thinks the future of brick-and-mortar stores will look like (35:00), and where he finds creative inspiration (37:00). Harry shares examples of how even bad design ideas can turn into good ones (42:00) and provides advice for pulling the most creativity out of a collective group of people (44:00). Harry ends by sharing a personal story of a great in-store customer service experience and how it directly resulted in additional orders (49:00). 

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Greg Zakowicz
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Vera Bradley:
Website: http://www.VeraBradley.com
Harry Cunningham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-cunningham-7a09ba

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