Retail Services

Throughout SLD’s 30 plus years, we have been at the forefront of innovative retail design and transformation. We create retail experiences that connect with consumers emotionally, deliver a return on investment, and support future growth. From concept to roll-out, we can handle the process completely, or partner with internal teams to bring a new store to life.

Unique experiences, including kiosks, pop-ups, trucks, and other activations, act as an extension of the store, building buzz and attracting new customers. SLD develops memorable retail activation concepts for a wide range of events.

Impactful visuals are how retail brands establish their physical presence and brand identity. SLD takes a strategic approach to graphic elements, signage and wayfinding to ensure clear communication where it’s needed, while always elevating the brand’s emotional value.

SLD provides full-service project management for retail network roll-outs, developing tiered roll-out plans and field guides to ensure investments are appropriately allocated. We work with construction and architecture firms, suppliers, store managers and client project leads to ensure roll-outs are handled smoothly.

Our retail designs define how to best present products and/or services and guide consumers through the experience. Store layout, customer flow, visual merchandising, and custom fixtures and displays are all part of our retail store services.

Having more format options and locations offer brands great flexibility but also adds complexity. SLD helps retailers create a strategy to move into new markets, launch new formats, reimagine legacy locations, or right-size a network.

We create brand standards and style guidelines to ensure consistent use of the brand identity and design elements. Designed for both internal and external partners, logo usage, positioning and visual elements are laid out in easy-to-understand directions.

We provide corporate communications packages that support a range of needs including presentation templates, employer brand positioning and design, office brand graphics, templates for internal communications, and more.

Strong retailers are built on strong foundations. A brand position is that cornerstone. We have over 30 years of experience helping retailers define themselves in a way that is relevant and impactful. We dive deep to understand the competitive landscape, emerging trends, and the consumer to ensure a future-proof position. Leveraging these insights we craft compelling emotional value propositions that drives differentiation and relevancy.

We conduct market research through traditional qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic techniques. We also employ cutting edge approaches such as scenario planning, field experiments grounded in the principles of behavioural science, and virtual customer journey mapping. We then translate this data into actionable insights.

Human-centred service excellence is a key differentiator for retailers. SLD’s service design approach utilizes deep stakeholder engagement through participation in collaborative sessions, leading to service experiences that bring the best out of frontline teams, meet or exceed customer expectations, and achieve specific company goals.

A good name can be an enormously valuable asset – but finding an available name that aligns with your brand is challenging in today’s market. Our team has helped many retailers find stand-out names through a systematic approach that is equal parts strategy and creative.

Strategic foresight is becoming a critical tool for companies that want to lead their industry. We lead teams through scenario planning, the three horizons framework, and back-casting to help brands define their desired future state and what they need to do to bring it to life.

Branding big ideas are a platform for marketers to build strategic storytelling that is consistent and impactful. SLD provides branding big idea concept development and can support client teams by handing off guidelines or developing creative through to execution.

Successful retailers hang on the success of their frontline staff. SLD develops employer brands, training programs, systems and assets to deepen employee engagement.

Whether your store needs a 10-storey 3D digital waterfall or a queueing system, SLD’s team has the creative and technical experience to make it happen. We develop systems that allow for localized content such as weather and news, with approval systems to allow personal messages at the store level with ease.

Digital signage needs ongoing content support. We develop content strategy and planning, template assets and guidelines, internal approval systems, as well as managing ongoing playlisting. We can also lead content creative development if desired.

Augmented and virtual experiences can enhance retail experiences as part of flagship stores, pop-up experiences or marketing activations. SLD designs AR/VR experiences that range from simple product information to complex virtual environments. We also develop virtual prototypes for consumer testing.