Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) is the first retail experience of its kind. Anchoring what will be one of the largest mixed-use spaces in the world, Grandscape, NFM wanted to provide a top-of-its-class shopping experience that would reward locals and out-of-towners alike.
Research
The first challenge a customer would have to overcome is the sheer scale of the shopping experience at NFM.
A competitive analysis at another flagship, Ikea, just across the highway, was extremely telling how often wayfinding was implemented and used by customers. Ikea is 310,000 square feet and within a few hours of observing customer patterns we found that a majority would reference all manner of printed posters, small brochures, hanging and floor printed signage while shopping to find where they were, and where they were headed.
Experiences
Seeing as how NFM is nearly twice the size at 560,000 square feet we decided to implement a “smart map” concept that wouldn’t just show shoppers the layout of the store, but also could route them directly to the department they were looking for.
The Smart Maps
We implemented maps in strategic locations: Oversized tabletop maps at entrances, and kiosk style screens along the main tracks in the store. Each map would route the user from their specific map location to the department of their choosing.
With a network of beacons spread throughout the store, no matter where items or departments got remerchandised, the maps would automatically reroute to the correct location.
Branded Store-within-a-store
Similar to the kiosk style touchscreens with mapping capability, there was opportunity within some of the larger branded areas of NFM to create custom catalog experiences, to provide an “endless shelf” for a customer who didn’t see the color option, or configuration they desired on the floor.
Kitchenaid had a wealth of content to provide users, with demos of the products as well as other video content, that necessitated audio to accompany the content. We solved for this with a clever top-down hyper directional audio source so that only those interacting with the kiosk would be able to consume the relevant audio in a very noise polluted environment.
Passive Video Wall
Between floor levels a large wall remained largely blank and created an opportunity for some motion and vibrancy in an otherwise lack luster transition space. Because the experience was passive content it provided visual merchandisers to both design around the screens and reinforce thematic modes with the content on the screens of this 3×3 grid.
Abstract Feature Wall
At what is to become the main entrance from the Grandscape gallery, NFM wanted to wow customers. Our solution provided an inviting sculptural, and kinetic feel to curved wall. The content strategy was to display dynamic, ambient video that spoke to NFM’s feelings towards being in Texas, and spoke to the sensibilities of the local clientele, all the while, working seamlessly in the carefully curated environment.
Results
Met with acclaim and fanfare, and a 2016 DIGI award for best roll-out, the digital experiences at NFM and the surrounding Grandscape continue to be forward-looking and not afraid to leverage the real estate for larger-than-life experiences, and smaller, more understated utilities that will bring the mixed-use space enjoyable, state-of-the-art experiences for years to come.
See promotional video below of some of the experiences in action.