Shoppers are changing faster than stores and suppliers can keep up in an omnichannel world. Despite the rise of e-commerce and agentic commerce, 80 cents of every retail dollar is spent in brick-and-mortar stores — the majority of which were designed long before omnichannel.

However, retail space planners don’t need a brand-new store to deliver a better omnichannel experience. Instead, these space planners should lean into shopper-centric space principles to better serve the shopper within the existing footprint of the store.

To explore how, we looked to a new-store expert for some fresh ideas you can implement. Terry Todd, AIA, principal and co-leader of the retail and grocery store practice area at RDC Collaborative, a Long Beach, Calif. architecture consultancy, tells us that retailers building from scratch are focusing on three shopper groups:

E-commerce shoppers
Stressed shoppers
Core shoppers

Here are three ideas you can put into play, right now, to start aligning with what these shoppers of today want, borrowing from new-store approaches.

One: Make the Store Easier to Shop.

E-commerce is big business for stores and suppliers, with digital commerce sales accounting for more than 80% of CPG dollar growth, according to NielsenIQ data. As a result, new stores are being built with e-commerce shoppers top of mind, Todd tells the Space Planning Community, with warehousing space in the back and pickup areas in the front for e-com orders increasingly being added to floor plans.

Here, retail space planners have a huge opportunity to optimize the shopper journey for both e-commerce pickers and brick-and-mortar visitors. It all starts with center store, where many journeys slow. Macro-space planners can star in the aisles with clearer signage in center store. For micro-space planners, making clear, easy-to-follow planograms can also help you stand out.

Macro space planners can also help ensure that utensils and napkins for food orders are in logical, easy-to-find locations — a notable new construction trend, Todd tells us.

Space planners have the experience and expertise to create the store that shoppers smile when they enter. Start by visiting one of your key stores over the next week or two. Observe how both e-commerce pickers and other shoppers make their rounds. Where do they slow? And why? When you start to consistently solve for these issues, you’ll start to catch up to that elusive shopper.

Two: Design for Emotion, Not Just Efficiency.

Stressed shoppers are also at the heart of new-store construction that Todd oversees. In fact, Todd’s working with one West Coast retailer whose whole design is driven by “whimsy”— a sense of playfulness.

So let’s put ourselves in the shoes now of these stressed shoppers. Retail space planners can help make the shopping trip more pleasant in a variety of ways, including:

Reduce decision fatigue with a curated item selection feel. In his compelling keynote at 2026 CMA-SIMA Elevate, Aldi expert Markus Schroeder noted that the European retail giant has just 1,500 SKUs, creating a feeling of “pre-selection” for shoppers. Costco, Trader Joe’s and Target are also excellent at curating assortment for their shoppers. Micro space planners everywhere can certainly lean into this strategy and look carefully at planograms that may be simply too loaded with choice.
Create a treasure hunt feel somewhere in the store to surprise and delight. Certain stores excel here and you know them when you see them. Think of Target, with its fun “Bullseye’s Playground” with $1, $3 and $5 items located at the entrance to their stores. And think of how your trips to IKEA and Marshalls can end with a little more in your cart than expected, be it a stuffed animal for a child or a leather-bound journal you didn’t know you wanted — but it took your experience from good to great. Macro space planners: where can you carve out that little section where shoppers find that little extra that makes their day?
Think about the occasions and life experiences that bring shoppers into the store, not just categories. Consider for instance, the shopping behaviors of health-conscious shoppers using GLP-1s. Research shows they are eating less but are more intentional about what they buy. Are your stores optimized for how these shoppers meal-plan, or how they fuel post-workout? For meal planning: can you introduce smarter adjacencies that help them reduce the time they spend hunting around the store for better-for-you items? For post-workout: are commonly purchased high-protein snacks or recovery drinks in easy-to-find locations? And most of all: what can your stores do to celebrate and support shoppers on the path to living healthier lives?

Three: Anchor Every Choice to Your Core Shopper’s Mission.

All new stores begin with core shoppers in mind — the people who will visit day-after-day, week-after-week.

Take, for example, one of Todd’s most recent projects: Bella’s Market, a 45,000-sq. ft grocery store in fast-growing Vineyard, Utah. The core shoppers here, Todd said, wanted both a “luxury grocery experience” and the ability to do all of their weekly shopping. The result was a store with specialty grocery/Fresh stations along the right side of the store, including a homemade tortilla station, but also a sizable center store section.

So now we put ourselves in the shoes of our core shoppers. If we do not meet their needs, our e-commerce strategies and ideas to delight and de-stress those shoppers may fall flat. If our shoppers are budget-minded, it’s all about helping them stretch their dollars. If they visit expecting to be wowed by what they find on the shelf, it’s about highlighting that assortment they can’t get down the street.

As the space planning executive told us, retail space planning is all about highlighting the items and experiences that will resonate with your core shoppers. Does the shelf tell their story? Retail space planners can tell this story better than anyone.

Tying It Together

A new building isn’t essential for meeting the needs of today’s shoppers. What is essential, however, is the expertise of retail space planners like you to help those shoppers truly enjoy being in your stores. Whether it’s optimizing more for e-commerce, injecting more fun into the shopper journey or simply getting back to basics on understanding your core shoppers, retail space planners can give old stores a new-store feel.