Bureau St. James

Retail & brand experience

Make the experience do the marketing.

We solve complex brand and business challenges by building and testing what customers experience next.

For leaders in retail, hospitality and consumer brands facing a concept, format or customer-experience decision.

One challenge. A cross-functional team. Three evolutions in three weeks.

You leave with an evolved prototype and a clear decision on what to build. Never a deck.

Bring us your challenge

James Andrew Smith was tasked with building URBN’s internal design studio and leading the team responsible for more than 200 unique, award-winning store environments.

Anthropologie, King’s Road, London: the storefront under hanging greenery
Plate 01Anthropologie, King’s Road, London · James’s studio at URBN

The problem

Four departments, one customer.

Brand, operations, technology and finance each see a different part of the same challenge. Taken one at a time, each solves its own part: the story, the process, the tools, the cost. The customer meets all four at once.

So we bring them to one table on the first day. The answer has to work for all of them before it meets customers.

Three of the questions we’re built for:

  • TrafficDiscounts stopped bringing people in. What will?
  • FewerFewer stores, bigger flagships. What does the one that stays have to do?
  • HaloSome of a store’s best sales ring up online. How do you show that before someone closes the store?

Why experiences stall

The lens

The experience is the marketing.

An environment. An app. A service. A product. Often, a combination. Location and beacon technology can connect them.

We build experiences that give customers a reason to choose you, come back and bring someone else.

Urban Outfitters Space 24 Twenty, Austin: an open courtyard at dusk
EnvironmentUrban Outfitters Space 24 Twenty, Austin
Screenshot of Koheriant: every US shopping centre, read in seconds
AppKoheriant, retail site-selection intelligence
Urban Outfitters Space Ninety 8, Brooklyn: a skylit dining room in a converted warehouse
ServiceUrban Outfitters Space Ninety 8, Brooklyn: the dining room

Three evolutions

Build it. Burn it down. Rise and meet the market.

The three evolutions, week by weekWeek 1, build it: the challenge becomes two competing answers, A and B, real enough to try. Week 2, burn it down with customers: both answers meet customers, who use, ignore and question them, and we rebuild around what holds. Week 3, rise and meet the market: the evolved answer is tested in a real setting, including what it takes to deliver, maintain and pay for. 01 / WEEK 1 · BUILD IT 02 / WEEK 2 · BURN IT DOWN. WITH CUSTOMERS 03 / WEEK 3 · RISE AND MEET THE MARKET Challenge Answer A Answer B Customer response USE · IGNORE · QUESTION REBUILD AROUND WHAT HOLDS Evolved answer, in a real setting DELIVER · MAINTAIN · PAY FOR The three evolutions, week by weekWeek 1, build it: the challenge becomes two competing answers, A and B, real enough to try. Week 2, burn it down with customers: both answers meet customers, who use, ignore and question them, and we rebuild around what holds. Week 3, rise and meet the market: the evolved answer is tested in a real setting, including what it takes to deliver, maintain and pay for. 01 / WEEK 1 BUILD IT Challenge Answer A Answer B 02 / WEEK 2 BURN IT DOWN. WITH CUSTOMERS Customer response USE · IGNORE · QUESTION REBUILD AROUND WHAT HOLDS 03 / WEEK 3 RISE AND MEET THE MARKET Evolved answer, in a real setting DELIVER · MAINTAIN · PAY FOR
  1. 01 / Week 1Build it.

    Turn the challenge into competing answers, real enough to try.

  2. 02 / Week 2Burn it down. With customers.

    Watch what people use, ignore and question. Rebuild around what holds.

  3. 03 / Week 3Rise and meet the market.

    Test the evolved answer in a real setting, including what it takes to deliver, maintain and pay for.

Before we start, we agree the question, team, budget and prototype scope. You leave with an evolved prototype, customer evidence and a clear decision on what to build. At Day 90, we return to see what changed.

The team

1 + 1 = 3.

Strategy. Operations. Technology. Engineering. Design. Creative.

Senior operators, founders, technologists and creative leaders, from a deep network built over 27 years and through Oxford. Different disciplines challenge and improve the answer. Your team works alongside us.

One plus one makes threeThe team is assembled. Six disciplines (strategy, operations, technology, engineering, design and creative) and your team work in one frame, and together they produce radical insights and challenged answers. One plus one makes three. The team is assembled Strategy Operations Technology Engineering Design Creative Your team 1 + 1 = 3 Radical insights, challenged answers One plus one makes threeThe team is assembled. Six disciplines (strategy, operations, technology, engineering, design and creative) and your team work in one frame, and together they produce radical insights and challenged answers. One plus one makes three. The team is assembled Strategy Operations Technology Engineering Design Creative Your team 1 + 1 = 3 Radical insights, challenged answers

Selected work

Selected work from James’s career

  1. Anthropologie on Regent Street, London: the storefront
    URBNBuilt and led the award-winning internal design studio and its team, behind 200-plus store environments for Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People. The studio continues today.
  2. Bedford Square, Westport: the old YMCA’s brick arch, home of Anthropologie & Co.
    Anthropologie & Co.URBN commissioned an outside team to explore the store of the future. A four-week engagement produced a full prototype in a URBN warehouse.
  3. Urban Outfitters, Herald Square, New York: the lettered sign above Broadway
    Urban Outfitters, Herald Square56,000 square feet. Three floors. Store planning and design by URBN’s in-house team.
  4. Devon Yard from above, on Philadelphia’s Main Line
    Devon YardMixed-use development on Philadelphia’s Main Line. URBN’s team carried zoning and civil work through approvals into construction.
  5. Screenshot of Koheriant: what you can do on day one, retailers and centres
    KoheriantFounded by James. Retail site-selection intelligence, combining CRM, geospatial analytics and AI workflows. Every number traceable to its source.

Career work also includes BHLDN, the UO Space concepts and the Vetri Family of Restaurants.

Studies

Questions we’re exploring.

Alongside client work, we run Studies on questions no single company owns. We choose them ourselves and publish what we find.

Study 01
The floor. Customers arrive knowing more than the staff. What is the person on the floor for? In the making.
How it runs
Built in public over three evolutions, then published as a printed report and a talk.

James

James Andrew Smith, black-and-white portrait

James Andrew Smith. At your table.

A design leader and former COO with a 27-year career and an Oxford Executive MBA. Trained in Milan and London.

…a mentor who facilitated the best of his team’s talents in order to drive us toward the best results.

Kir Moore, who worked with James at URBN

More about JamesJames on LinkedIn

Contact

Bring us your challenge.

Tell us what is changing, where you are stuck and what the answer needs to achieve. A paragraph is enough.

You hear back within two working days, from James.

hello@bureaustjames.com

+1 281 749 1854

Bureau St. James on LinkedIn