Created by a panel of industry experts, and led by Creative Director Romeo Sommers of ByRomeo, the Retail Lab has been created to showcase the latest trends within the garden industry, whilst also providing retailers with hands on advice and inspirational content that they can take back to their own stores to drive sales in 2018 and beyond.

The Retail Lab kicked started its time at Glee with some national news coverage, having been featured within the BBC Breakfast’s live reporting from Glee. Since then it has seen a wealth of visitors, including retailers, members of the press and the many bloggers, vloggers and consumers that attended the show as part of a new PR initiative.

One visitor to the Retail Lab, Jean Vernon, gardening correspondent at The Telegraph, said: “The Retail Lab @ Glee provides a fantastic insight into the amazing depth and breadth of the garden products industry. Inspiring, informative, fresh, innovative and surprising in places, it has been well worth a visit.”

The Retail Lab has focussed on four key consumer themes; trends that are within touching distance and will directly affect consumer spending habits in the near future.  

The themes - Well-being, Family, Community, and ‘Re-wilding’ - have been identified by Romeo Sommers, and world-leading trend experts, WGSN. Suppliers from throughout Glee have been supporting the feature as either Preferred or Selected Partners, with their products being used to help create the truly stunning product displays.

With interactive elements, visual displays, guided tours and bitesize information, have helped been retailers on a journey of inspiration.

This inspiration – and tangible business advice – is needed now, more than ever as consumer spending habits continue to change, and become increasingly influenced by aspects such as environment, economics, and social consciousness. As a result, the role of garden retailers and the way they interact and appeal to their core markets is also changing. The Retail Lab @ Glee has helped to cut through some of his noise.