Nature remains top of mind in categories as diverse as outdoor apparel, streetwear and beauty – but with monolithic structures superseding the previous softer versions of biophilia. These raw, rugged homages to planet Earth, some of which reference the origins of key ingredients, are evocative of unchanged ancient landscapes, providing urban environments with a powerful sense of serenity.

Several brands, notably many with a substantial and storied heritage, have upped the ante on in-store cafés via imaginative environments, rethinking the parameters (and level of elevation) of the daily coffee and tea fix. Chocolate consumption, too, is taken to new, deluxe heights.

The premise of a brand’s maison as the ultimate expression of brand personality also returns this quarter, albeit in differing guises – from a luxury domicile to an inner-city hyper-creative supermart.

Amplifying sensory engagement in physical spaces continues to fuel seductive new spatial design, with tea and fragrance companies drawing on increasing levels of theatricality to elevate their olfactory and taste-led brand DNAs. Privacy and a sense of revelation play a notable role in the staging of the best.

Other new brand designs emphasise social engagement – but without the strong educational stance taken in previous community-centric flagship concepts – to cement a sense of local, slower-paced conviviality, based on simply spending more time convening. Think in-store chill-out zones, listening-room-esque spaces and meandering café courtyards.

Channelling consumers’ rising interest in product longevity, as part of the shift to Asset Culture Commerce (see Look Ahead 2024) and pushback against obsolescence (see Eco Comms: Autumn/Winter 2023), new aftercare concepts – either integrated into the main store (see Merging the New & The Renewed in Circular Economy Concept Stores) or as separate spaces – emerge this season.

Reasserting the credibility of 3D printing for store design, two agile brands have deployed it to imaginatively tailor-make store interiors for compact venues. Sustainable materials, such as mycelium and biodegradable cellulose, underpin the designs.

Building on The Rise of the Spa Store trend, identified in Global Store Openings: Winter 2023, a small wave of beauty stores have coupled shopping and self-care, offering customers urban respite while testing out new products. See also Wellness-Centred Retail.

Leaning heavily into the pull of nostalgia, a new wave of openings shows a keen appetite for cultural storytelling, in many cases specifically the stories of those whose families are part of a diaspora. Domesticity-inspired ultra-personal spaces – anchored in real or fictionalised families – offer a rich and original seam of thinking around the power of familiarity and home.