Real-World Tech for Retail: New Living Retail Lab in Atlanta

March 1st, 2019

HighStreet Collective is launching the new Living Retail Lab in Citizen Supply, a “maker’s market” in Atlanta’s Ponce City Market. The Lab – the creation of Laura Davis-Taylor and Ed King of HighStreet – will be the site for technology-driven, results-focused shopping experiments conducted in a working retail setting.

 

The concept will involve a series of test-and-learn ‘sprints’ that begin in April of 2019 inside the 12,000 square foot Citizen Supply, a key destination inside Jamestown Properties’ Ponce City Market.

 

“One thing the retail industry has been begging for, but unable to supply, are real-world innovation case studies with real numbers,” said Laura Davis-Taylor, Co-Founder of HighStreet Collective. “Our project will showcase different retail technologies in a real environment with real shoppers — with a sharp focus on HighStreet’s CX design and solutions that can be successfully utilized today. We will document everything from strategy to solution to agile adjustments and report real results.”

 

As we’ve covered here on digiDaybook, there is no one better positioned than Laura Davis-Taylor and Ed King to explore – and explain – how new technology tools are being enlisted in the massive effort to reinvigorate retail. Retail stores are being pressure tested like never before. And as ‘typical’ transactional store trips become an ever-increasing commodity, what does the brick and mortar store need to become? Can the tech tools that have taken the enterprise world and sports arenas and educational campuses by storm – large palette displays, interactive displays, engagement apps, and more – bring experiential magic or just good informational/visualization sales or merchandising tools to retail shopping?

 

HighStreet is encouraging technology suppliers and brands to join the wait list for becoming involved with the Living Retail Lab, noting that the testing ground will offer valuable, highly actionable data.

 

“From a shopper behavior perspective, the minute you take someone out of the natural shopping habitat and into an unnatural lab environment, you lose, because the results will be skewed,” said Ed King, Co-Founder of HighStreet. “The Living Retail Lab is designed for real shoppers in a real store, spending real money. You don’t get any more ‘real’ than that.”

 

Go to the web portal for the new Living Retail Lab, by clicking here.