If you’re anything like me, you’ll agree that there's just something so merry about holiday shopping.
Don’t get me wrong—any change of season is always a good excuse for a little retail therapy in my book. But what's particularly exciting about this time of year is that, once November rolls around, the most frequented shopping streets around the world shift our bystander gaze from casual window shopping to an explosion of light, warm energy, and ambitious creativity.
Whoever says Bergdorf Goodman’s holiday windows don’t make them do a double take is lying!
In the past decade, holiday visuals have significantly grown in size and hype. As soon as summer winds down, one can’t possibly help but wonder, who will kick off the season with the largest installation? Who will nail the most extravagant window unveiling? Who will host the best in-store experience? And yet, beneath all this speculation is the question of why the holidays are so big and important for retailers in the first place.
Known for its continuous run of promotional campaigns, the holiday season marks the time when retail is best positioned to maximize sales and revenue before January’s slowdown (read: markdowns, returns, and the dreadful post-holiday savings).
In the US, for example, 80% of holiday retail sales occur in stores. Thanks to this peak in both demand and spending leading up to Thanksgiving, the anticipated increase in foot traffic offers plenty of opportunities for experience-based engagements in brick-and-mortar channels.
For visual merchandisers in particular, the holiday season is the most celebrated period in the retail calendar. From window displays to immersive experiences, these moments signal how well “business is doing” for brands by showcasing the creative prowess of visual artists and experiential designers.
To put it lightly, September is to Vogue what the holiday season is to visual merchandising: a catalyst of fresh new beginnings and the perfect chance to show extreme creative artistry.
Now more than ever, retailers need to allow consumers to interact with their brand narrative in more ways than one, which makes magical visual merchandising a vital component of their holiday sales strategy.
In anticipation for this year’s magical store experiences, here are the top visual merchandising trend predictions of the 2024 holiday season.
Who can resist the storybook fantasy of Christmas? Almost nobody. Whether you love a theme or your taste skews more subtle, holiday retail is emotionally attached to tradition, evoking feelings of belonging and identity.
Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, the festive period offers a mix of social connections, nostalgic comfort, and a roller coaster of emotions. With consumers’ growing appetite for richer brand engagement, retailers will seek to provide customers with a dose of magic in their holiday shopping this year. Enter: the hyperphysical store.
The main idea behind the hyperphysical model is offering a heightened consumer experience through meaningful spaces and extraordinary, sensorial moments where every touchpoint is a door into the brand’s ecosystem.
This 2024 holiday season, we predict more and more retailers will transition from product-based festive offerings to experience-based engagements, incorporating immersive technologies to elevate traditional holiday shopping and creating lasting memories without the need of purchasing a physical product or contributing to overconsumption.
From branded cafés to interactive workshops and metaverse storefronts, the hyperphysical store will bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds this Christmas season, outshining e-commerce’s convenient, yet two-dimensional way of shopping.
There’s no doubt that changing consumer needs and wants are driving brands to rethink the in-person shopping journey in favor of more engaging, sensorial and memorable experiences—even if this means tapping into worlds different from their own.
Demonstrated in a survey by Highsnobiety, 96% of its readership enjoys when traditional brands go in unexpected creative directions.
Nike x Jacquemus at Incu, Australia. Photo: Semi Permanent.
Essentially the blueprint for countless viral moments on social media, the lasting appeal of unlikely cross-sector collaborations will allow brands to expand their offering this season, encouraging customer curiosity and introducing new ideas designed in alignment with their audience’s holiday shopping habits and expectations.
Think of imaginative interiors crossing the boundaries of brand guidelines in lieu of incorporating the qualities of each brand to craft something memorable and extraordinary. We predict that this trend will continue to dominate the last quarter of 2024, facilitating the cycle of co-creation in 2025.
Yinka Ilori x Courvoisier at The Wonder Room Selfridges, London. Photo: Dezeen.
Gone is the loyalty card with a mystery number of points. The 2024 holiday season marks a return to desirability through true exclusivity as we predict brands will develop new forms of transactional interactions with a particular focus on their VICs (‘very important clients').
Private shopping experiences not only guarantee customers with complete privacy, relaxation, and discretion away from prying eyes, but in efforts to reassert their luxury credentials, high-end brands and retailers will have the special task of luring top-spending customers with elaborate money-can’t-buy experiences in tailored, holiday-themed environments.
From invitation-only stores, trips, services, and events, discreet and emotionally-driven visual propositions will have staying power in merchandising products and building deeper connections in line with the lavish spirit of the holidays.
Louis Vuitton ‘Savoir Rêver’ private clients event in London. Photos: James Taylor/Louis Vuitton.
Is bridging the gap between virtual and physical worlds the future of retail? You bet. In fact, more than 60% of Millennial and Gen Z shoppers surveyed by YPulse in 2022 expressed a preference for in-store experiences, up from 50% in 2021. Such data highlights customers’ growing expectations from real-life moments compared to online shopping.
This 2024 holiday season we see retailers capitalizing on this trend by incorporating a technology-driven approach in their visual merchandising, aligning their holiday display campaign with their core brand values: sustainability, conscious consumption, and transparency, to name a few.
J.Crew Holiday Experience virtual store powered by Obsess. Photo: Obsess
Additionally, by creating adventurous experiential spaces that merge innovative technologies—from interactive touch screens and motion sensors to virtual and augmented reality—with traditional physical retail and entertainment, stores will seamlessly elevate their customers’ escapist window shopping tendencies with 24/7 access to an alternative digital reality.
Designed to draw attention, amuse and delight, digital displays prove that window experiences remain vital storytelling portals and highly engaging touchpoints for brand discovery.
Therabody interactive window display as part of Harrods Tech Month. Photo: 365 Retail.
AMI Paris rooftop beach pop-up at Galeries Lafayette ‘La Promenade d'Ami.’ Photo: AMI Paris.
Retail’s new success recipe is all about in-store activations, immersions, spectacles, and curated experiences. A report from Marble LDN suggests that in-person events account for 70% of regular customer acquisition for brands, meaning that when people engage with experiences, they are more likely to buy the products being promoted.
As the physical store becomes less focused on the act of shopping itself, the 2024 holiday season will see retailers drawing in onlookers and tourists into their universe with immersive brand activations with well-woven stories, such as exhibitions, installations, and multi-sensory experiences.
Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Harrods takeover. Photos: Creative Boom/Urban Adventurer.
This move brings the selling-narrative ball back to the brand’s court, enriching their product universe through the power of storytelling and emotional engagement to champion a more holistic experience.
From neighborhood-centric initiatives to landmark takeovers, brands will engage with consumers where they live and work, seamlessly integrating into their lives at a human level and expanding the breadth of their influence in culture.
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