At a moment where we’ve learned to consume exponentially in completely virtual ways, the post-pandemic retail experience will require an even greater elevation of brand and product experience. For certain tactile brands or ones that trade on a certain Gestalt, customers will come back to touch, feel or take it all in. Technology brands, for example, are unique in that their products and services are easily described in function online. Therefore, their IRL experience needs significant upleveling beyond function and spec.

• Show and tell aspects of the product that go beyond the everyday, and lean into a futuristic vision of the possible. Experience should express vision, not function;
• Give customers higher-order storytelling around a brand’s purpose to galvanize a community beyond a momentary product release;
• Meet your customers at the scale of retail, not the scale of interface or product detail.