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if you’ve ever found yourself snapping more store photos than selfies…

you’re gonna love today’s guest.

meet sandy hernandez.

she’s a nyc based retail strategist, store safari leader, founder of the retail muse, & very much my kind of retail fangirly. the kind who walks into a store and immediately clocks the scent strategy, the signage hierarchy, the staff energy, the visual merch flow & then gleefully documents all of it for future use.

today, she’s sharing how she helps brands escape the retail echo chamber.

whether through her experiential safaris, her “3 i’s” innovation method, or her soon-to-launch youtube series store wars (yes, it’s as fun as it sounds).

her pov is sharp, energizing, & refreshingly honest. after reading this, you’re going to understand so much more about retail, but more importantly about human behavior.

bts q&a: sandy hernandez

Q1: can you share a little bit about you and the work that you do?

I'm Sandy Hernandez, strategist and founder of The Retail Muse. I transform how brands approach physical retail—helping them create spaces that don't just look good but actually drive sales. 

My retail safaris and workshops take teams out of boardrooms and into the wild—observing real consumer behavior across cities like NYC and London to see beyond their industry bubbles and redesign experiences that convert. After years at Accenture, I now split my time between helping established players inject fresh thinking and guiding DTC brands through their first brick-and-mortar ventures.

I'm particularly passionate about amplifying fresh retail voices – the indie brands and emerging concepts that make our shopping streets worth visiting again. 

Beyond consulting, I create content that cuts through industry noise—from trend reports to my soon-to-launch YouTube channel featuring segments like STORE WARS, where I'll review and compare retailers (sometimes with expert guests) to reveal what actually works and what doesn't. Stay tuned!

Q2: your experiential retail workshops seem to be at the core of your business. what happens during these sessions that transforms how brands think about physical spaces?

My safaris and workshops are retail education disguised as fun – we don't just observe stores, we interact with them through gamified exercises with specific learning objectives. A typical tour might involve teams competing to identify the most effective customer journey touchpoints or documenting innovative visual merchandising across different price points. These experiences trigger lightbulb moments as participants connect dots between industries they'd never consider relevant to their business. 

Back in the workshop, we immediately apply these insights to a client’s real business questions: e.g., How do we create an events program that actually drives sales? How can we attract new customer segments? What low-cost changes will make the biggest impact on conversion? 

The combination of experiential learning with structured application makes abstract trends immediately actionable.

Q3: through your 3 i's method (immersion, inspiration, innovation), you help brands launch physical spaces in days or weeks rather than months. what's your secret to speeding up this traditionally lengthy process?

My approach combines the best of retail education with practical implementation tools. 

• The immersion phase gets teams experiencing retail as actual customers (not industry insiders), documenting what genuinely captures attention and creates emotional connection. 

• The inspiration phase exposes them to cross-industry innovations through curated tours designed to answer specific business questions like "How do we create a stronger community feel in our stores?" 

• The innovation phase uses facilitator tricks borrowed from design thinking to compress traditional development timelines – we use card decks, frameworks, and voting techniques that prevent decision paralysis and keep projects moving. 

This helps brands skip the endless debate cycles that typically bog down retail concepts. By the end of a single week, teams have validated concepts they're genuinely excited to implement rather than presentations gathering dust.

Q4: your new youtube channel “the retail muse” and "must-see nyc shops" newsletter series shows your passion for retail exploration. what three elements make you immediately know a store is worth featuring?

Usually it hits one or more of the following:

1. It stops the scroll AND the stroll. Digitally, it's creating buzz - cultural relevance, online debate, imagery that pops in my feed, or a strategy so distinct it's basically in its own category. IRL, something irresistible makes me brake mid-stride – an unexpected window display, sounds spilling onto the street, a delicious aroma, or yes, even a crazy queue that makes you wonder "what's inside?"

2. It crushes my retail scorecard. When a store nails location strategy, creates merchandising magic, or builds teams that radiate 'we love being here' energy, it's getting featured. I'm judging everything from first impressions to how it converts browsers into die-hard brand advocates.

3. It captures trends I geek out over. For instance, Celeb 2.0 brands captivate me – where founders become cultural icons in their own right, building influence through authentic storytelling and direct community connection. This is retail leading culture, not chasing it.

Q5: what's the most common mistake you see dtc brands make when opening their first physical store?

DTC brands often approach retail as a three-dimensional billboard rather than a distinct channel with its own rules and opportunities.

They'll build beautiful Instagram-worthy spaces but fail to understand how people actually move through physical environments or what motivates in-person purchasing behavior.

The second mistake is underinvesting in staff training—many brands spend millions on fixtures but skimp on developing the human talent who ultimately deliver the experience.

Finally, too many brands clone their website experience instead of creating complementary touchpoints that enhance what digital cannot provide: tactile connections, community building, and those serendipitous moments that happen when people interact in physical space.

Q6: you describe yourself as taking "more store photos than selfies" - what specific details are you looking for when you document retail spaces?

My camera is practically an extension of my arm at this point — apologies to anyone out with me who has to wait while I snap "just one more photo!" I'm obsessively documenting everything from the curb appeal that stops your stroll, to that perfectly styled display that whispers "buy me." I also love capturing intriguing concepts that might not even be retail-related. The best inspiration often comes from outside our industry!

These snapshots become my retail arsenal: fueling my trend forecasting, powering my content creation (YouTube channel just launched!), and building my inspo library for retail tours and workshops with clients.

For a more structured audit, I've got my trusty set of frameworks that score everything from first impressions (those crucial first 30 seconds) to the bathroom experience (trust me, how you design and maintain your bathroom tells me EVERYTHING about your brand values). I'm capturing the emotional journey — does the fitting room lighting make customers feel fabulous or like they want to curl up into a ball and cry? Is that tech solving actual problems or just collecting dust? 

Like a retail detective, I’m hoping to uncover the brand’s superpowers and the missed opportunities that are leaving money on the table. And yes, I may occasionally be that person blocking the aisle to capture the perfect angle of an innovative display — but I promise it's all in the name of retail science!

Q7: many of today's most successful physical retail concepts are focusing on "experience over transaction." how do you help brands find the right balance between creating moments and actually making sales?

The "experience versus transaction" debate creates a false dichotomy—the best retail concepts understand that memorable experiences drive transactions, sometimes immediately, but most definitely over the customer lifetime. The real power comes when both work together strategically based on objectives.

I believe it's perfectly fine to sometimes prioritize experience over transaction – as long as everyone is crystal clear about the concept's objectives from day one. When working with brands, I always start by asking: 'What's the true purpose of this space? What is its WHY?'

For awareness-focused and experience-led concepts, success might look like visitors raving about your shop to friends or creating organic social content. Brands like SKIMS and Rhode nail this strategy. With this approach, a physical retail space can become a powerful marketing channel that outperforms digital ads as acquisition costs skyrocket. 

Conversely, if the concept’s goal is to drive immediate sales, you need to thoughtfully create moments throughout the customer journey that naturally guide people toward purchase. The key is aligning your objectives, design, and metrics so you're influencing and measuring what actually matters instead of chasing vanity metrics that don't pay the bills.

Q8: pop-ups have become a major retail strategy, especially for testing concepts. what makes for a truly successful pop-up versus one that's just instagram bait?

A successful pop-up is a strategic learning lab with a mission beyond a social media backdrop. I've found that smart brands use every pop-up to test a specific business hypothesis. Whether launching a hero product that deserves the spotlight, validating a new market before permanent investment, or meeting online customers IRL to inform store design, each pop-up should ladder up to your overall retail strategy.

Smart operators obsess over operational details. For example, they use ticketed entries for data collection, turn queues into experiences, befriend neighbors, plan for weather chaos, and prevent competitive hijacking (imagine another brand setting up a giveaway in your line!).

They map every customer touchpoint and build experiences that match the emotions they want to evoke—e.g, a VIP reveal for luxury, playful scavenger hunts for fun brands, or serene escapes for wellness products.

They extend engagement beyond the physical space, using digital content and tangible mementos to keep the story going, then apply data-driven insights to recreate successful elements elsewhere.

The flip side? Retail catfishing drives me crazy—when brands create AI-generated images or influencer hype that the actual experience can't match. The fix is simple: be transparent about what customers can expect, then deliver exactly what you promised—or better yet, exceed it.

Q9: the retail landscape is constantly evolving. how do you stay ahead of trends to ensure your advice remains cutting-edge?

I've developed what I call "retail radar" – a disciplined approach that’s part art, part science, part heart:

Physical Exploration: I’m all about boots on the ground, literally walking streets in different neighborhoods and cities, attending openings and events, talking to store associates rather than just executives, and spending time where my clients' customers actually shop. My curiosity is borderline obsessive – I've visited hundreds of stores in the past year alone, documenting what works and what doesn't.

Digital Inspiration: I’m a content junkie. I devour newsletters like merry makery, podcasts, and YouTube deep dives while curating my LinkedIn feed with industry experts like fellow Rethink Retail TREs. This inspiration flows into my knowledge system – Apple Notes, Readwise, myMind, NotebookLM and Notion – helping me synthesize patterns and test ideas through my content. Real-time social media feedback shows me what resonates.

Community Connection: Nothing beats informal retail safaris and coffee chats with fellow enthusiasts to explore new concepts and exchange ideas. For broader industry insights and networking, I complement these with conferences and IRL micro-events (e.g., Vogue Business, Shopify NYC).

Q10: what's a retail innovation you've seen recently that truly excited you?

I love when industries blur to build "brand worlds" with storylines and plots (caveat: as long as it does not crossover into cringe territory). Innovative retailers are borrowing from Hollywood and Disney World’s playbooks to create theatrical spaces that invite customers to participate in their narrative rather than simply shop.

Anya Hindmarch's Village perfectly showcases this with its kitschy, whimsical storefronts that constantly evolve - from ice cream parlour to airline to dive shop  - creating a unique neighborhood experience. Jellycat’s themed Fish & Chips shop and NYC Diner concepts instantly make people smile and connect with the brand's playful personality.

This trend is also coming to life through the rise of retail tourism—brands creating standout stays like The Pleasing Inn at SXSW and Norrona’s Adventures where customers can literally live inside the brand universe. 

BONUS!

I'm equally thrilled about the emerging ecosystems (Shopify x Leap x Simon Properties) that make brick-and-mortar more accessible to brands ready to take their physical retail leap. It’s quite an exciting time! 

Q11: what’s one thing you wish more brands understood about creating memorable retail spaces?

Understanding human psychology is at the heart of every truly memorable retail space.

Too many brands let trends or cost-cutting pressures dictate their store design and ongoing customer experience, rather than prioritizing human behavior, core motivations (like status, belonging, or self-expression), and emotions. They forget that how a space makes people feel determines whether they'll spend money with you – and return. 

What's fascinating is that negative experiences are actually more memorable than positive ones, which is why smart brands invest in service recovery moments that turn potential disasters into loyalty-building opportunities. The biggest mindset shift I advocate for is viewing staff not as a cost to minimize but as your most valuable experience asset—because one frontline encounter can permanently shape a customer's perception of your entire brand. 

When emotion becomes your design foundation rather than an afterthought, that's when people line up outside your door in the rain just to experience what you've created.

retail rapid-fire round

• fave retail store of all time? 

  • Selfridges. No question.

• retail center that gets it right? 

  • Oakbrook Center in my hometown burbs of Chicago

• can’t live without retail tool?

  • Readwise Reader, my mind and Notebook LM to synthesize my retail research.

• retail metric you obsess over?

  • Customer retention rate

• your signature style of merrymaking? 

  • Bucket-listing, Making Pretty Graphics, Game nights, Zumba 💃🏻, Wine Tasting, All things Bravo and pop culture

• best retail advice you've ever received?

  • Invest in the unscalable

• what do you love about working in retail? 

  •  It’s human. It’s visceral. It’s memory-making.

connect with sandy

this convo had me thinking about how we spend so much time talking about “retail trends,” but what sandy remind us is how to actually feel them!

to walk the streets, watch what stops people mid-stride, and use that as your brief.

her approach is a reminder that stores aren’t just built from strategy decks. they’re built from emotions, instincts, memories, & moments that make people say, “wait… i want to go inside.”

& maybe more importantly: “i want to come back.”

in an age of endless screens and scrolls, the brands that win are the ones who remember retail is physical, human, & deeply felt. if you’re launching your first store (or rethinking your 50th), i’d be sure to subscribe to her world.

🔗 link up here:

• follow sandy, her company, & her newsletter on linkedin

• follow her new youtube channel

• join the live stream premiere of her store wars series on linkedin next thursday may 22. the first episode is a head-to-head flagship face-off between gymshark & on running.

p.s. final day to grab the best deal ever on the merry membership for only $5/month!