Retail isn’t dead. Retail is more relevant than ever as brands fight for customers attention and share of wallet, but it is evolving—and for brands to thrive, they too must evolve. Customers increasing expectations of convenience and experience are transforming the physical store, and shopping experiences are no longer defined by traditional retail channels — they are a mix of online and offline interactions, of experience and commerce, and of marketing and media.

With this in mind we Cartier reached out to us to examine how the experiences they offer today need to evolve and what it changes in their retail model. A large percentage of visits to Boutiques unaccounted for in Cartier's retail performance model, so we started with research to understand why customers were coming to Carter and what mindsets and expectations they brought with them. We mapped their intentions and mindsets into a 'experience line' framework that allowed us to analyze the client journey from both the perspective of the customer and the retail staff, and understand the gaps and opportunities in the tools and interactions that Cartier use to deliver luxury experience.

This framework allowed us to not only rethink the global retail experience for one of the Brand's most popular and iconic product lines but also put it to work driving requirements for the renovation project of the Maison’s flagship Boutique in Paris, Le 13 Paix.

Understanding that retail experience and the work to adapt to new client expectations will be driven by the frontline sales staff we also set out to build ATLAS — a new tool to aid internal communications and knowledge sharing across Cartier's 270 global boutique network.

With multiple initiatives already launched, a new approach to infusing experience thinking into boutique renovation briefs, and a new retail focused app for the Cartier community we are changing the culture within the organization.