RETAIL is our passion and our core business. SUCCESS is what we achieve for our clients: attracting more shoppers, increasing sales, reducing investment and controlling current costs. We call ourselves ARCHITECTS because we create and implement structured and sales focused commercial environments.

Whether you are a brand, a retailer, a service provider, B-to-B or B-to-C... our unique architectural retail approach can help you to connect consumers to you business, and to seduce them to become shoppers.

To achieve this, we use a result focused approach:

We focus     We create      We engineer     We implement

We focus on your brand, your store and your shoppers before we start to design. It is our belief that a good retail concept starts with a good retail story
- a retail promise - not with beautiful forms and colours.
It is easy to make nice designs, we prefer to make the right designs.

• Why should a consumer come to your store?
• Why should (s)he buy your products or services?
• What makes your retail brand unique?
• What is your retail story?
• How to develop mechanisms to increase your sales?
• How to seduce more passers-by to enter your store?

Retail Office will take you through 5 steps to find the right answers together:

focus group • brand focus • store focus • consumer focus • retail focus

We create environments with stopping power, attracting passers-by into your store, helping them to find the right product or service and enhancing the shopping experience in such way that the shopper becomes a retail brand ambassador.

Using the retail focus as a blueprint, we create a differentiating, visual, architectural and structural retail language.

• How to create a store front with stopping power?
• How to create inspiring product presentations?
• How to stimulate cross-selling with a clear store lay-out?
• How to bring the right communication on the right moment?
• What impression do you want to leave in the shopper's mind?

All aspects of your store or commercial environment are covered in this phase:

store lay-out • store architecture • store communication • store merchandising

We engineer everything we create, because we believe that a well developed concept is only fit for implementation when all technical and qualitative requirements are met.

Technical detailing of the designed elements is the main task of this phase: making drawings and selecting the right materials, colours, lighting system, etc... This allows us to search for and to find the best suppliers for your project, with a correct price tag and a quality level that matches your brand image.

At the end of this phase we bundle all material in a basic concept book, including the concept blueprint, visualisations, descriptions and dimensions of the different elements of the concept. This concept book is your tool to start implementing your retail concept.

Engineering your concept includes:

final design • technical development • tendering • concept book

We implement retail concepts we have developed ourselves as well as existing retail concepts for retailers that only need project management services. Consider us the extension of your organisation. We will take care of preparation, budgeting, planning and follow up of production and installation, within the guidelines of your brand.

Being an independent agency, we coordinate external suppliers and contractors. We have a network of contractors we can count on - to get the best price/quality - but can also work with your preferred suppliers.

You already have a project or facility manager in your organisation? Retail Office has a team of designers that can supply a full set of plans of each store. We take care of the concept and how to translate it to each specific space, so that your people can concentrate on the implementation.

Our project managers can assist you with a feasibility study - financial and technical - of a potential new location before you sign the contract. For some of our clients we even make preliminary shop plans in order to check if their concept fits in the building. This avoids wrong decisions and saves our clients a lot of money.

Feel free to meet our project managers, they will tell you more on our services:

piloting • drawings • roll-out • immo consultancy

Our services are available in two formulas: menus and à la carte.

The menus are bundled services that offer an approach in function of a specific project. As every project and every retailer are unique, these menus can be personalised to your needs. The à la carte services are individual solutions that give an answer to a very specific or detailed request. It is possible to combine multiple à la carte services to create a menu to your taste.

Tell us what your project is about. We're convinced we can propose you the right approach for your retail brand.

Note that we are a unique partner for non European brands who want to set foot on the continent. Our project managers have years of experience in implementing concepts in different European countries and know the specific regulations a retailer has to comply to.

Our menus offer recurrent approaches and solutions, developed over the last 10 years and each one with proven results:

New concept development

You have a retail business idea but you ask yourself how to translate this into a store? We can help you from strategic thinking to preliminary design, and from technical development to the opening of your first store.

Retailisation

The look and feel of your store concept is great but the turnover isn’t fancy? We have an audit system that allows us to detect weaknesses and opportunities, and we have the know-how to increase the retail level of your store(s). This is not about re-designing your stores, this is about structuring your stores.

In-store communication

We have developed specific grid that covers all aspects of in-store communication: signing, branding, pricing, informing,... Our graphic designers will bring added value to your store concept in order to create a great retail experience for your shoppers.

Tendering

You wish to reduce your investments in new stores? Comparing prices on the market really pays off. Being an independent design agency, we have achieved price reductions ranging from 25 to 50%. Our know-how of the market and where to look for the right quality and price has helped many of our clients to make their business more profitable.

Immo Consult

Finding the right outlet is not always easy. Our project managers can estimate the building or transformation costs, check implementation feasibility and help negotiate the contract.

Project Management

Planning, budgeting, site management and opening a store is a specialty on its own. We have a team that is specialized in these tasks. They can propose contractors to work with or they can work with your actual contractors.

Roll Out

You already have a finished concept but need a team that can help you to implement stores? Our designers will make all drawings for implementation - within the guidelines of your brand - and our project managers will open your stores within budget and within time.

Retail Safari

Your team needs a course in retail or wants to stay tuned in this rapid changing retail world? We organise custom made retail safaris to show your team trends in retail and how they are successfully applied.

Drawing Services

Translating a concept into different retail store shapes looks easy, but often isn’t. Our people have the skills to translate your store concept to every possible location, thanks to hundreds of stores for different retailers already translated in the past.

Displays and fixtures

Your store works well but some products or services need a specific presentation? We can create and develop the right presentation tools for them. Consider it a "quick win", without the need to change your whole store.

Auditing

A retail environment - a store, officina or a shopping center - is a mix of rational, emotional and operational elements. Our audit method discovers weaknesses and helps to unveil opportunities. An external view on your stores can offer some surprising results.

Story telling

You are looking for someone to bring a story about retail or our specific project approach? We are keen to share our retail know-how with you and your audience. Our team has already taken active part in many seminars and congresses.

A la carte services can be offered when you have a specific request or when your retail brand needs a tailor made approach.

Here are some of the ingredients we can offer you:

fixture design • consultancy • brainstorming • store audits • building permits • concept manuals • lighting solutions • routing optimisation • optimisation of materials • consumer analysis • visibility check • cash counter optimisation • in-store communication • sales processes • cross-selling solutions • up-selling solutions • project management assistance • create stopping power • product presentation • technical drawings • production follow-up • prototype evaluation • shop-in-shop design • product & service displays • promotional elements • product protection • anti-theft solutions • project management • graphic design • retail brand identity • store front design • shop window design • POS design • visual merchandising • merchandising manuals • lighting audit • energy audit • pitch assistance • staff coaching • staff training • ...

Our clients are the best proof of the retail successes we have created.

Retail Office is not specialised in one specific retail sector, because we believe that our understanding of the consumer’s needs and of the shopper’s behaviour is the key to develop successful retail concepts. Working in all retail sectors allows us to discover patterns and to develop solutions that can be applied in and translated to multiple retail formulas.

About us

Retail Office was founded in 2003 by a group of people with more than 20 years of experience in retail. In 8 years time, and thanks to the numerous retail successes we have accomplished for our clients, we have become one of Belgium’s leading agencies.

Our team

Preferred partners