2023 EuroShop Trends and Insights

The world’s largest trade fair, EuroShop, took place at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre from February 26 to March 2 of this year. The retail fair, held every three years in Germany, sets the stage for industry leaders and tech experts to discuss innovative ideas and emerging trends, yielding crucial insights. Several EuroShop trends and insights that impact visual merchandising have been identified and placed on the agenda.

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What to Expect at EuroShop 2023

The trade fair will showcase the shift from the places-to-shop concept to places-to-be — retail is no longer an individual transaction, but an experience. EuroShop will focus on consumer trends in various categories, including store design or visual merchandising, lighting, retail marketing and more.

Great Northern Instore is particularly interested in several agenda items that discuss visual merchandising trends.

1. Shopfitting, Store Design and Visual Merchandising

The first key trend is paying individual attention to the sustainability of the entire business environment. Whether reusing materials or recycled items when building shop fittings and designing stores or using sustainable, eco-friendly and biodegradable materials when creating all visual merchandising, sustainability is at the forefront. The key message is that brands should focus on reducing, reusing and recycling at every stage of their business. EuroShop will discuss ecological materials and showcase various innovations to help companies reduce their carbon footprint.

2. Materials and Surfaces

Material and surface discussions will also skew toward sustainability. The trend is to increase the use of biodegradable, recycled or raw materials and focus on using local suppliers to source them.

3. Lighting

It is widely known that lighting accounts for a considerable amount of retailers’ energy costs. Many retailers have adopted efficient controls and innovative LED light solutions in recent years. Cutting energy consumption even further is an essential agenda item at the retail trade fair. The Swedish ITAB Group plans to share a dynamic light solution at EuroShop, showcasing the ability to reduce energy consumption by 50% while enhancing the customer journey.

4. Retail Marketing

Sustainability remains central to the 2023 EuroShop fair, and sales promotion and retail marketing are not exempt. Leading businesses continue to focus on using raw materials and items recycled from existing products and stands, taking steps to create a fully circular economy. One significant trend includes using wood and fiber-based materials instead of plastic.

The trend toward transparency is another insight we can glean here, with industry leaders planning to use screens and shelves to tell consumers how products are sustainable, how they utilize fair trade practices, and how their business is working to be kind to animals and the environment.

5. Expo and Event Marketing

Exhibition and promotional stands and event marketing items are increasingly being created with the environment in mind. Leading retailers are using materials that are 100% recyclable and seeking alternatives to plastic, like recycled acrylic glass and honeycomb panels made from 100% cardboard. Expo and promotional stands are reused and adapted rather than being discarded after each event or show.