How do your customers feel?

If your store could talk, how would it make people feel? This headline recently caught our attention and struck a chord. How physical spaces make people feel has been central to achieving success for our clients for the past 20 years.

The move away from just ‘transacting’ with customers to ‘engaging’ with them instead, is nothing new of course and it has long driven our approach to designing branded retail stores and hospitality spaces.

Through design workshops with brand owners, we place their customers’ needs at the very heart of our goal setting. We then work to layer these with the client’s vision, their business goals, and all their operational essentials. In reality, our interior design ethos goes beyond space planning, architectural specifications, and materiality - we make the ‘feel’ of space a priority.

However, we frequently discover new clients who are disconnected from their customer base. They are not actively listening to their customers or closely monitoring how they are ‘feeling’. So, whilst there is a plethora of data available to brands today, some are guilty of misinterpreting the findings or perhaps worse, ignoring them.

But with increasing competition, retail brands who exist to ‘just sell stuff’ with little regard to their audience needs and feelings, will continue to struggle. Even at the value end of the market, we’ve seen high-street discount chain Poundland, suffering. With a name that is literally your brand promise but not enough products in store which cost a pound, no wonder customers are shopping elsewhere!

Time and again the evidence shows us that today’s consumer is discerning, regardless of the size of their purse. Poor service is anathema to them, broken brand promises don’t impress them, and loyalty strategies only work if they move beyond the transactional.

In a market where functional benefits blur, feelings are becoming the new differentiator

So says trend analysts WGSN in their recent insights report. They conclude that we have entered the era of ‘Emotional Consumption’ and explore strategies to create deeper connections across the customer journey.

Importantly for us and the clients we work with, WGSN reassert that physical retail provides a critical space to enhance trust, quality and emotional connection.

Further evidence for the need to deepen customer connections, came from the World Retail Congress last year, who reported that ‘emotionally resonant brand experiences are key to lasting customer relationships’. Among their ‘10 Top Takeaways’, they featured the need for Customer-Centricity, acknowledging that it is critical to be consumer focused, especially as new generations emerge. They also highlighted the value that comes from investing in store experiences that deliver the all-important Magic of Retail.

We’ll be marking our 20^th anniversary this year, celebrating our own delivery of creative and magical spaces for brands. To this day, our projects span the retail and hospitality spectrum, which allows us to explore a wide range of engaging customer design solutions.

Lister Horsfall celebrating their win at the 2025 WatchPro Awards

For instance, one of our big success stories in 2025 was our new showroom design development for luxury jeweller Lister Horsfall. Not only were we able to exceed client expectations, but their loyal customers have been thrilled with the new environment. There was even independent recognition from the jewellery and watch sector at the October 2025 WatchPro Awards, where Lister Horsfall won Best Refurbished Store.

Postmark London Bridge plays a key role in BBC1 spy thriller The Night Manager

It also seems that engaging high street stores make for great TV… Sharp eyed fans of The Night Manager may have noticed another of our award-winning clients, Postmark, whose London Bridge store featured at the start of episode five of this prime-time BBC1 spy thriller’s second series, playing a key role in the script. A top-secret laptop is hidden among our stationery display shelving - showing that our store design solutions cater to all kinds of customer needs!

So as we wish you well for the year ahead, we look forward to sharing future successful case studies with you. In the meantime, we remain focussed on interior design solutions that not only reflect the absolute best of the brands we serve but which make customers feel valued, welcome, and ultimately enriched by their visit.