Sep 25, 2021
The Sep-Oct issue of Furniture World features the latest article from Retail in the City owner Jennifer Magee titled “Customer Flow - It Can Make or Break a Shopping Experience”. She discusses how different store layouts & circulation plans can influence how shoppers interact with merchandise & how they buy. She reviews the benefits & drawbacks to the two main type of store layouts that work best for furniture retailers: the Racetrack Plan which loops customers completely around a store & the Free Flow Plan which allows customers to explore a space as they like. She also gives tips for laying out a store effectively.
"Once shoppers get past the main entry, they tend to turn right almost 90 percent of the time. People make this “invariant right” turn, then tend to walk counterclockwise through the space.”
Jul 28, 2021
Retail in the City owner Jennifer Magee’s latest article for the July-August issue of Furniture World goes into detail about how retailers can find the best vacant spaces on the market to convert into furniture stores. In “Retail Space Race”, she gives pros & cons on converting different types of space and covers “what to ask for”, “what to look for”, and “what to keep in mind” when shopping for spaces and starting negotiations. She even provides examples of what her current furniture store clients have been able to negotiate.
"Leases on roughly 1.5 billion square feet of retail space will expire this year. That, combined with a high vacancy rate, make it a buyers’ market for home furnishings retailers.”
May 9, 2021
Furniture World invited Retail in the City owner Jennifer Magee to write a contributing article for its May-June issue to forecast what the “Future of Store Design” will look like for home furnishings retailers following the COVID-19 pandemic. She gives examples of what her current furniture store clients (including Mathis Brothers, Miller Waldrop Furniture, Furniture Mall of Texas & Boulevard Home) are doing as they look to the future.
"In the post-COVID shopping world, retailers must continually improve their online experience to better reflect what is going on in their physical store environment (and vice versa). Both online and offline experiences should be seamless, working together to reinforce each other.”
Jan 20, 2021
Sleep Retailer featured a Q&A in their latest January issue where they asked Retail in the City owner Jennifer Magee & other industry experts “What Kind of Retail Innovation will Emerge from the Pandemic?”
"The in-store shopping experience will need to provide a level of comfort, ease, technological advancement, and expertise that can rival the online experience. And so the real innovation will come from creating a completely seamless online-offline experience. Many of the technological advances of ecommerce shopping will be integrated into the physical store experience. Same-day delivery & pickup as well as an easy-check out and return process will be critical.”
Nov 13, 2020
Sleep Retailer invited Retail in the City owner Jennifer Magee on their podcast to discuss the evolution of the in-store environment. She talked about her work as a retail store designer & provided tips to mattress retailers looking to increase the performance of their stores.
The episode named "Designing High-Performing Retail Environments" can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Blubrry.
"Magee shares her unique insights on what today’s consumers are really looking for from brick-and-mortar stores -and how retailers can design their showrooms to ensure that their customers feel safe, comfortable and engaged."
Mar 4, 2018
Business Insider wrote a detailed piece on our design of Financial Gym’s first flagship location on 25th Street entitled: “Inside the Financial Gym, where trainers offer you wine and Kleenex as they strip you ‘financially naked’ and analyze your money issues.”
They interviewed FG CEO Shannon McLay & gave a full photo preview of the finished space. And as the articles notes: “The Financial Gym isn't a gym, per se, and the workout you're about to endure isn't for your glutes. Rather, the Financial Gym offers an exercise regimen tailored to another integral aspect of your life: your budget.”
"I don't want this to feel like a workspace," McLay said. "Most people work on money in their home. We want this to be like their second home."
Sep 5, 2018
The Financial Brand profiled the Financial Gym’s launch in the space we designed with an article entitled: “The Financial Gym: How to Pump Money Out of Financial Education Programs.”
In the interview with CEO Shannon McLay, the article focuses on how “McLay envisions the future of the Financial Gym as a chain in cities across the US, where people will be able to go to manage their finances, the same way they’d go to the gym to get in shape.”
“I want people to see the gym and know that they can come in and figure out a real way to sort out their finances,” said McLay.