Retailers - Never Give Up On The In-store Magic Of Christmas

It might have its haters (especially among last minute buyers), but Christmas shopping can still be magical. Beneath twinkling lights, flustered masses swerve around each other, weighed down by their trinkets. Yet, amid the chaos, a peculiar camaraderie seems to emerge. Crowds pause for a drink - a festive pint or a fancier sip of champagne. Relief, laughs, festive cheer - all in a glass, with a bag full of wrapping paper crammed beneath the table.

As cliché as it sounds, Christmas is still a golden opportunity for retailers. People are spending less (as prices go up while wages don’t - making growth tougher for many parts of the retail sector), but they remain eager to induce a Christmas morning smile. And what better moment to catch consumers' eyes with something unique, warm and fuzzy that creates positive brand experiences that last far longer than a single measurable click?

Except in this digital age, the magic is more challenging than ever to execute. No window display can reverse the fact fewer people are heading outside to shop than ever before. And this will only be accelerated by artificial intelligence: Recent figures from McKinsey indicate that by 2030 the global business to consumer market could see up to $5tn in revenue through agentically orchestrated commerce.

And consumer behaviour is already shifting. Also according to McKinsey, 44 per cent of those who have tried AI-powered search saying that it has become their “primary and preferred” source for internet searching -

This applies to Christmas dinners as well as gifts. According to YouGov, 33 per cent of Britons now do their food shopping mostly or entirely online.

But “nothing’s final,” says Really Good Culture’s retail and engagement strategist Phil McMahon. “People get used to things, macro-forces are relentless, expectations and behaviours constantly evolve, and the technology that was once physical stores' Grim Reaper is the same tech that enabled retailers to become omni-channel, which gave rise to a reappraisal of the role stores can and need to play.”

He argues that shopping is easier than ever due to the ubiquity of pick-up locations, and posits that stores are increasingly doubling up as “showrooms” for items people have saved online.

VCCP's behavioural science arm, Cowry's head of behavioural design, Raphy March agrees: "The biggest shift we are seeing now is that customers, particularly Gen Z, are no longer satisfied with clever layouts or sensory cues on their own. They want experiences. They want environments that feel social, immersive and worthy of being shared. Pop-ups, collaborations, workshops and community events now matter just as much as the products themselves. Browsing alone is not enough."

It comes as no surprise then that swathes of retailers are diversifying their offering – and in many cases this involves building on their marketing.

The Power Of Experience

Whether it starts with nostalgic characters such as Sainsbury’s BFG spot, John Lewis’s analogue reverie that has audience’s pine for vinyl, Tesco’s vignettes of relatable humour, or Waitrose’s delightful rom com – in-store remains an opportunity to create a layer of brand-building on top of the biggest advertising moment of the year.

Additionally, from vinyl to candle-making many retailers are creating events to pull consumer’s in.

Across the board there is proof that real life experiences foster connections with brands as they do people, and advertising is the thread that inspires:

• Sainsbury's

Building on Sainsbury’s BFG-inspired messaging, and its ad created by New Commercial Arts, the supermarket has tried to bring touches of the story in-store.

“BFG merchandise is really there to help our customers. They love Roald Dahl, and it’s a way for them to take home a bit of that BFG magic,” explains chief marketing officer Radha Davis, “I think he really does add a real sprinkling of that charm and delight at Christmas time”.

Roald Dahl fans can spot product names based on the book’s gobblefunk language - such as a “snozzcumber biscuit kit” and “phizz-whizzing” bath bombs throughout stores.

Meanwhile, BFG-themed clothing is on sale as part of its clothing brand Tu’s offering.

To enhance the experience of connecting with the story, as shoppers traverse the store they hear BFG's voice through the speakers, Davis explains.

• John Lewis

John Lewis’s Christmas offering this year told the story of a teenage boy and his father connecting over music. The boy purchases a vinyl copy of Alison Limerick’s 1990’s house classic 'Where Love Lies' and the viewer is plunged into a nostalgic 1990s clubbing scene as the father reminisces.

“It felt like the right thing to do to keep it grounded, strip it back and tell a slightly simpler story to get that connection between father and son...exploring authentic relationships, using music as a bridge across generations,” explains Saatchi & Saatchi’s CCO Franki Goodwin.

For the retailer, the aim was to build on a trend it has termed “nowstalgia” in its latest 'Shop, Live And Look' report. For John Lewis this year’s focus on 90s fashion, music and culture has helped it leverage intergenerational bonding.

This message is continued in-store and through window displays focused on the music theme (such as nutcrackers with DJ decks). A collaboration with Rough Trade also creates a physical manifestation of the vinyl disk, and new lounge spaces allow moments of genuine connection.

“That sentiment of music really brings together different generations. Quite a lot of mums shop with their daughters or grandparents bring them in store. One of the things which always trying to strive to create  John Lewis is a really enjoyable shopping experience,” explains John Lewis brand marketing director Amy Tippen-Smith.

• Tesco

Tesco’s Christmas vignettes, created by BBH, tapped into the most painfully relatable aspects of Christmas – fighting with siblings, getting teased for your accent when you come back from university, being asked frustrating personal questions… again.

"To make everyone feel seen, we wanted to use multiple vignettes, mixing super-relatable moments with those more niche, hyper-specific ones. This way, Tesco truly owns its position as the brand that is the fabric of the nation," outlines BBH's deputy CSO Saskia Jones.

Building on this, the supermarket has released a humorous set of cards which act as an antidote to the usual Christmas clichés and can be bought in-store.

And it has created Christmas jumpers with the frustrating questions placed loudly on the front.

"The F&F jumpers and the Robin Shaw Christmas cards were literally designed to be functional, tongue-in-cheek extensions of the campaign's humour," Jones adds. "When the idea is strong, the execution is easy. You're just using a different vehicle (a jumper vs. a 30-second film) to deliver the same, relatable punchline."

• Ikea

From wrapping its stores up like a giant blue Frakta bag, to giant Turkey-sized meatballs – Ikea is full of inventive ways to bring consumer’s in stores.

 “Cultural proximity beats physical presence. We said, yes, we’re going to come closer to you physically, but we also want to come close to you mentally and emotionally… All our room sets are co-created with Londoners… so they feel locally grounded,” Ingka Group’s (Ikea Retail) global brand and positioning manager Belén Frau told Creative Salon.

And from a festive meatball and plantball offer, as well as a new festive hot dog in its famed restaurants, to a decorating workshop for Santa Lucia, the retailer has leveraged its familiar Swedishness to turn gift and furniture shopping into a cultural experience.

• Waitrose

Elsewhere, Waitrose’s Christmas spot, created by Wonderhood Studios, tells a story of romance beginning at the cheese counter. The retailer’s theme of food as a love language is something which chief marketing officer Nathan Ansell has been keen to bring in-store via its partners.

“I think we it's really important that that we feel like our partners own this idea, so we give them lots of opportunities to interact with customers,” he explains, “And that's probably the most important thing, is that kind of partner customer interaction. So we've got t-shirts that kind of prompt questions that customers can ask partners”.

This is supported by clever product placements related to the ad, from limoncello mince pies to recipe card’s detailing how to make Phil’s “I Love You” pie. The key is that every part of the consumer experience positions Waitrose as the home of food lovers.

How can retailer's fuel the magic of conversion?

McMahon explains that turning in-store activations into conversions is a highly subjective process which involves a team of space planners, visual merchandisers and floor managers.

“The 3D store environment exposes you to a lot more impulse inspiration than online shopping does. If you’re shopping online you see a very limited amount of items on your screen at any given time,” he explains, “Stand in-store and your focus peripheral vision, hearing, touch and sense of smell are all much more alive and kicking”.

March confirms this, "There is a very strong body of behavioural science showing that people are significantly more likely to make impulse purchases in physical stores than online. The simplest explanation is that physical environments place you into an emotional state much more quickly and intensely than digital channels ever can."

He adds that some senses can prove even more seductive for shoppers than others: "Multi-sensory experiences are far more memorable than functional ones because of how the brain processes them. Each sense creates its own neural trace, but some are especially powerful. Smell, for example, is processed in the olfactory bulb, which sits right beside the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation. This is why a single scent can transport you back twenty years in an instant. Music has a similar effect because we encode melody, rhythm and emotion through multiple pathways at once," he says.

March also explains that it helps that people often become overstimulated as they shop, and reiterates that it is much easier to come across something you didn't expect than whilst you are searching online.

"Self-regulation becomes harder the longer you spend saying no. You see something, you resist it, you move on, and that cycle repeats dozens of times during a shop. This is why those final shelves are so effective. It is the moment when your defences are lowest," he says.

Cultivating That Nudging Feeling

Beyond the obvious aspects such as pricing everything and making the space easy to negotiate for wheelchair users and those with prams, McMahon highlights the importance of floor staff using behavioural tricks like offering baskets to customer's as they enter and when they have their hands full as this maximises opportunities for impulse purchases.

March adds that, unlike online where consumers are only shown examples of what they search for or related products, placement is crucial - highlighting that items by the checkout can prove irresistable: "Even if you have been disciplined throughout the whole store, that small chocolate bar, festive candle or seasonal ornament at the till slips past your weakened self-control. It feels like a harmless reward for having made it through the rest of the decision making."

Cowry's work, March explains, has drawn on tricks such as using summer playlists to encourage consumer's to purchase suncream at a well-known supermarket instead of Boots or Superdrug (which had tended to be default options).

Other tricks include ensuring that consumers don't have to retrace their steps (this idea has been widely used in the T-junction of casinos).

Cowry also use calming colours to create calming effects in queues and influence time perception, March explains.

Retail magic is a complex science, especially at Christmas - but when the stories told in the year’s most high profile advertising are built upon with best-in-class in-store customer service and experience it creates a much longer lasting impact than any AI search tool.

For March, the benefit is clear: "Experiential brands outperform because they invest in emotional association, not just product. They create memories. Those memories continue to shape customer preference even if the eventual purchase takes place online."

The run-up to the big day might now be the only time some consumer’s visit stores, be it part of a last minute Christmas dash or a friends or family shopping trip. As purses tighten, those marketers that aim to make the experience seamless and magical enough to remember will surely win in the long term.

As March puts it: "One magical second can define the way the entire brand is stored in memory."