Faculty Contact: Roxanne Parker, Christie Hand, and Britain Riley

Equipment: Mock store complete with fixtures, clothing, and props

The Retail Merchandising Lab was originally established in 1994 as a state-of-the-art, hands-on learning experience for students entering the retail industry. Retail has been radically transformed by digital commerce. Astonishing technology advances enable retailers to focus on consumer data, demand, and experience. The retail industry will be resetting its consumer shopping model to reflect this, placing greater emphasis on creating engaging and exciting shopping experiences for consumers especially online and through emerging technologies.

Reinventing our lab to include emerging technology and a more digital experience will provide our students with an unmatched level of preparation for entering the retail industry. In addition to the technology enhancements that have been added, we have also reinvented the traditional retail space to include all new updated fixturing. We will continue to provide the students with brick-and-mortar retail visual merchandising skills while layering in the omnichannel visual merchandising experience in our newly renovated Retail Experiences and Innovation Studio (“The Studio”).