7 Tips from a Visual Merchandiser,  Ilaria Gasparo works as a VM for Bershka, and has a lot to share! Giulia: Can you explain to me what exactly your job consists of? Ilaria: I’m a Visual Merchandiser. Therefore, I am in charge of everything related to the image of the store. From shop windows, mannequins, lights, internal layout, to marketing material and props and so on. I will explain to you in general what is going on in the retail field. I will also provide you with 7 tips from a visual merchandising, which is a role that can vary from company

What can we expect to see along with this 2020 and in the next decade? These are three trends here to stay. Trends don’t happen from one day to the other; on the contrary, they are the sum of the connections of little dots that occur across industries due to political, social, economic, technological, and cultural changes that affect our society.  The latter process happens in all sectors, and retail is not isolated. Through our pop-up events, I have the privilege to observe these trends in the making and how different brands and retails interpret those same trends.  How is a trend

With creativity and imagination, even a circular economy pop-up can become a reality! Last summer Trashlab Miniwiz launched in Porto Cervo (Sardinia, Italy) a pop-up where the money was plastic. Trashlab-Miniwiz is a company that recycles and upcycles materials for all sorts of solutions. From architecture to consumer goods and furniture, with them, rubbish finds a second opportunity and a new life. This circular economy pop-up had a Trashespresso machine and a smart rubbish bin called Robin. Robin recognised and sorted out waste customers brought in, turning it into points. Through an app. customers used points to purchase the products sold in store.   What

Paris is one of the major European cities. It has a total of 2.1 million inhabitants (Jan. 2019) and an average of 40 million tourists per year. That is a significant potential group of customers, perfect to launch a pop-up! Each neighbourhood has a broad array of things to offer, so it might be challenging to choose, which is the best one for your next pop-up.  However, each of them has some peculiarity and can suit better your pop-up concept for style and public.   " Paris is always a good idea."                      

We are approaching the end of a decade, and everything from the '90s is becoming vintage. Earlier Millennials are looking the '90s with a sense of nostalgia. At the same time, GenZ is discovering the cult series from that same period. What is making these pop-ups so incredible? Fans will have the possibility to play their favourite characters, and of course, take some memorable pictures.  //3 Example of comedy pop-ups Seinfeld: the first comedy pop-up to offer an immersive experience. A live sit-com based on a fictionalized life of stand-up comedian Jarry Seinfeld. The pop-up launched to celebrate 30 years from the program's premiere: displaying

According to Sproutsocial.com, Instagram has 1 billion users accessing the platform every month; 50 % of those are scrolling through their feed every single day. That is a big audience! Visual is everything on Instagram, so how significant is visual excess in a pop-up event. Taking advantage of the dominant visual culture, we are embedded in, many brands have been able to prove that the "Instagram Economy" is still working.  One example we want to bring to the spotlight is the case of the Museum of Ice Cream (MIC). Why is this example so emblematic? Probably because it is the first pop-up

We can consider cities special living creatures, they have strong identities that characterise one from another, they have energy, and they change through time. Neighbourhoods are profoundly affected by these changes, and urban planning is a crucial element if the institution and local governments want to guarantee sustainable growth. The main objective is to ease the most burning conflicts that affect cities nowadays: pollution, sustainability, housing to mention some. Every week 1.5 million people move from urban areas to a metropolis, worldwide, according to UN estimations, with a higher tendency in developing countries in Asia and Africa. The projection is

The concept of wellness has changed over time. It is no longer connected to the mere idea of being healthy but includes other core areas of our life: mental, emotional, social, environmental and physical wellbeing. Indeed, for the World Health Organization, wellness is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."  According to the Global Wellness Institute, the overall wellness economy is estimated to value around $4.2 trillion in 2017. It represents 5.3% of global economic outcome, showing how large and powerful this industry is. The overall industry comprised several sectors

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is every time more embedded in our lives. Through the use of computer science programming  and by analysing data and surroundings, it is possible to solve or anticipate problems and learning or self-teaching it to adapt to a variety of tasks. Retail is a sector benefiting, as well, from AI by providing customers with instant support inside the store by using robot or touch panels. These techniques can help to increase efficiency, by faster helping the customers but also by providing to the company direct feedback about consumers' preferences. The results are several: from reducing customers waiting

Millennials, born between 1980 and 1996, have been at the centre of the attention for the last decade. To the point that fashion even gave to this generation a colour: the famous Millennial Pink.  It is a sort of a grapefruit shade and apricotty salmon;  you might like it or not, but for a while, it was everywhere! We have learnt everything about this exciting and multitasking generation. A generation that through the decades has learnt to adapt to many changes. During the ’90s, they lived on their young skin, the shift from an analogue to a digital society. To

A Mega-trend is a global, sustained and macro economic forces that impact several aspects of the society at the same time: business, economy, the behaviour of the society, cultures and the way individuals live. Mega-trends develop over a longer period and step by step, define our future and the future of our world, having a big impact on the pace of change itself.    If you think about your daily life you will immediately identify several aspects impacted by technological developments that have changed over the years. In the era wherefrom our phones we can virtually carry out every aspect of what

The internet has been a turning point for the way we understand time, distances and communication, democratizing the way information is shared.  Two major disruptions have changed the way we understand retail: the inception of  tech giants and new consumers’ empowerment.  Let’s take a look at the scenario of the tech giants: Apple has changed the way we communicate, they had a vision: putting into our hands the world. They achieved it by creating the idea of a smartphone and ratifying the end of the Blackberry era. They never intended to compete against the Blackberry (the most famous phone and a status symbol

With more and more companies using data to extract vital information about the behaviour of consumers to transform them into products, services or the right banner to show up during an internet browsing, is not news that owning our data is on its way to becoming a human right. Why? Because data should be interpreted as property and people compensated accordingly, one might say. In the future, some predict that only who will be able to pay not to have their data stored and used will benefit some degree of privacy and control. As any technology does, also the internet has advanced