Consumer Electronics Store Design: Mega Stores & City Formats

Consumer Electronics Store Design: Mega Stores & City Formats

Consumer electronics store design is no longer simply about displaying more products in a larger space. For senior retail management, the strategic question is how physical retail can generate greater commercial value while connecting seamlessly with digital commerce, fulfilment, service and customer data.

Elgiganten's Norwegian mega stores and city-centre formats provide a useful case study in this shift. They demonstrate why different locations can require different retail formats, customer journeys and operational models.

For consumer electronics retailers, the objective is not to create one attractive store and reproduce it everywhere. It is to build a scalable retail format system in which every location has a defined commercial role.

Turn Store Design into a Commercial Growth Strategy

Online comparison has increased price transparency while e-commerce has raised expectations around product information, availability, convenience and fulfilment.

Physical retail therefore has to provide value that a product listing cannot deliver alone.

The store should make technology easier to discover, compare, test and understand. It should create opportunities for demonstration, expert advice, complementary purchases, service and aftercare.

The commercial chain is straightforward: better zoning → easier discovery → stronger engagement → higher conversion → larger baskets → greater customer value

Retail architecture, spatial planning, visual merchandising and customer journey design are therefore commercial disciplines, not simply aesthetic ones.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg connects these disciplines rather than treating them as separate design commissions.

Brand auditing establishes how the existing proposition is perceived and expressed. Strategy defines the desired market position and commercial objectives. The design brief converts that strategy into practical requirements for customer experience, store planning, merchandising, identity and implementation.

The benefit for management is one strategic direction linking brand decisions to the physical retail network, rather than a collection of disconnected design initiatives.

Build a Multi-Format Retail Network Around Customer Missions

A single standard store rarely serves every customer, location and commercial objective equally effectively.

Elgiganten's Norwegian model illustrates the value of format differentiation. Larger environments can support extensive assortments, broader demonstrations, gaming, computing, televisions, appliances, smart-home environments, consultation, service and fulfilment.

A city-centre proposition requires a different commercial response.

An urban technology store can prioritise convenience, accessibility, high-frequency categories, compact merchandising, service and rapid collection. Elkjøp's Norwegian estate similarly demonstrates different store roles, including city-format locations and stores combining physical retail with collection and service functions.

The strategic principle is: Store format should be determined by customer mission, location, product proposition and commercial opportunity, not by reproducing one standard store everywhere.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg defines the commercial role of each format before design begins.

This establishes:

• which customer missions the format must serve;
• which categories require physical demonstration;
• which services should be delivered locally;
• how much assortment needs physical presentation;
• how digital assortment extends the store;
• where collection and fulfilment should sit;
• how the format contributes to the wider estate.

The benefit is a retail network in which every location has a defined job to perform.

Align the Physical Store with the Digital Customer Journey

The technology retail journey often starts online. Customers can research a television, laptop or smartphone, compare products, check availability and reserve an item before visiting a store.

The physical environment should continue that journey rather than make the customer start again.

A commercially effective journey can move through: Discovery → Comparison → Demonstration → Advice → Purchase → Collection/Delivery → Service → Aftercare

Each stage creates a different design requirement.

Discovery requires clear navigation. Comparison requires accessible product information. Demonstration requires space to touch and test products. Advice requires appropriate consultation environments. Collection requires speed and clarity. Service requires accessible support.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg maps the customer journey before translating it into spatial design.

Store planning, merchandising, digital touchpoints, service areas and fulfilment processes are developed around the journey rather than designed independently.

The benefit is a physical environment that extends the digital customer relationship instead of creating friction between channels.

Make Click & Collect Part of the Store Experience

Click & collect is both an operational requirement and a customer touchpoint.

Elkjøp currently promotes online ordering with store collection within one hour, demonstrating how fulfilment speed can form part of the physical retail proposition.

For consumer electronics retailers, collection can also create additional commercial opportunities. A customer collecting a laptop may need a case, mouse, monitor, docking station, software or protection.

The store therefore needs to balance speed of collection with relevant opportunities for service and complementary purchase.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg integrates collection points, stock access, circulation, service, payment and relevant merchandising into the store plan.

The benefit is a fulfilment journey that is convenient for the customer while allowing the physical store to contribute additional value.

Benchmark Analysis: Elgiganten and M.Video

Elgiganten: Multi-format network

Elgiganten provides the primary benchmark for differentiated consumer-electronics formats. The strategic lesson is not simply that mega stores and city stores look different. It is that the role of each location should reflect its customer mission, assortment, accessibility, service requirements and fulfilment model.

The management implication is significant: format strategy should be an estate-level decision before it becomes an architectural decision.

M.Video: Scalable consumer-electronics experience

M.Video provides a complementary benchmark for connecting consumer-electronics retail environments with customer experience, merchandising and scalable network implementation.

For management, the relevant lesson is the relationship between the individual store and the wider retail system. A successful concept must be repeatable, adaptable and commercially controlled rather than dependent on one exceptional location.

Management lesson: No universal store format

The strongest current evidence comes from retailers adapting their estates around commercial priorities rather than treating store design as a fixed template.

Currys, for example, re-engineered 115 UK stores in 2025, reallocating space towards faster-selling and more profitable categories and creating room for new categories. Its current strategy also reports that store availability investment is estimated to generate approximately 0.2% annual uplift in store sales.

Currys has subsequently continued investing in store productivity. Its Sales Floor Leader and headset programme, launched in 2025, is reported by the company as driving a conversion-rate increase and sales uplift, while improvements to Order & Collect reduced average pick time from 14.3 to 9.2 minutes and improved collection-ease scores from 81 to 88 points.

These are useful management benchmarks because they demonstrate a broader principle: Retail transformation creates value when store design, product availability, customer service, fulfilment and operational processes are addressed together.

This is also why a consumer-electronics network should not be judged solely by the appearance of individual stores.

Turn Consumer Electronics Merchandising into a Solution

Technology retail merchandising should move beyond rows of products.

Computing benefits from comparison and demonstration. Gaming can support immersive experiences. Smart-home products become easier to understand when presented as complete environments. Mobile products require compact presentation supported by advice and accessories.

The objective is to explain not only what a product is, but why it matters, how it works and what other products or services increase its value.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg connects category strategy with spatial planning, visual merchandising, brand communication and customer journey design.

The benefit is a merchandising system that supports customer understanding, confidence, conversion and attachment rather than simply increasing product density.

Use Phygital Technology to Remove Friction

Phygital retail should solve a customer or operational problem.

Digital signage, interactive product information, mobile integration, inventory visibility and self-service tools can connect digital commerce with physical retail.

But technology should support the proposition rather than become the proposition.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg identifies where digital intervention genuinely improves the customer journey and where human or physical interaction remains more effective.

The benefit is a phygital environment designed around commercial and customer requirements rather than technology for its own sake.

Measure Store Design Against Commercial Performance

For senior management, design investment requires measurable objectives.

Potential KPIs include:

• conversion rate;
• average transaction value;
• accessory attachment;
• sales per square metre;
• dwell time;
• click-and-collect utilisation;
• fulfilment speed;
• service adoption;
• repeat visits;
• customer satisfaction;
• retention;
• customer lifetime value;
• store productivity;
• ROIC.

The precise measures should reflect the role and economics of each format.

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg translates commercial objectives into design requirements and performance measures.

If attachment sales are the priority, product adjacencies and customer journeys can be redesigned accordingly. If higher-value conversion is required, consultation and demonstration environments can support those journeys. If fulfilment is the constraint, collection, stock access and circulation can be reconsidered.

The benefit is a clearer relationship between retail investment, design decisions and the commercial outcomes management needs to deliver.

Turn the Concept into a Scalable Retail Format

The value of a successful store concept lies in its ability to be repeated and adapted.

A mega store may require extensive category journeys and immersive demonstrations. A city-centre format may require compact merchandising, rapid collection and convenience-led navigation.

Both should remain recognisably part of the same brand and retail system.

The strategic chain is: Customer Mission → Format Strategy → Store Layout → Merchandising → Customer Journey → Omnichannel Fulfilment → Commercial KPI

How CampbellRigg helps

CampbellRigg develops the strategic and design principles that allow a retail concept to scale across different footprints and locations.

Brand identity, spatial architecture, merchandising systems, signage, customer journey and digital touchpoints can be structured into a repeatable format framework.

The benefit is greater consistency, faster rollout and better control of the customer experience as the network evolves.

How CampbellRigg Helps Build a High-Performance Technology Retail Network

CampbellRigg combines retail strategy, brand auditing, brand positioning, retail architecture, interior design, visual merchandising, customer journey planning and phygital experience design.

The agency begins with the commercial problem and connects strategy to physical implementation.

For a new mega store, city-centre format, refurbishment or network transformation, CampbellRigg can define:

• format and estate strategy;
• customer missions;
• brand proposition;
• spatial architecture;
• category and merchandising strategy;
• customer journey;
• digital and physical touchpoints;
• fulfilment and service requirements;
• scalable rollout principles;
• commercial KPIs.

The benefit is a clear route from strategy to implementation, with the physical network designed around measurable business objectives.

Elgiganten and M.Video: Case-Study Comparison

Elgiganten provides the primary case study for understanding how mega and city-centre technology retail formats can serve different customer missions.

M.Video provides a useful supporting benchmark for understanding how consumer electronics store design can be connected to commercial performance at network scale.

This comparison is important because no single retailer should be treated as a universal template.

Elgiganten

Strategic lesson: differentiate store formats according to location, customer mission, assortment and fulfilment requirements.

M.Video

Strategic lesson: connect technology retail environments with broader customer experience, merchandising and network rollout.

The wider conclusion is that successful technology retail transformation is not simply about creating a visually impressive flagship.

It requires a repeatable system connecting: Format strategy + brand environment + customer journey + merchandising + digital commerce + fulfilment + service + commercial measurement.

Where relevant and properly evidenced, project-specific sales results should be presented with their context, methodology and timeframe rather than as universal promises. This is particularly important when communicating sales uplift or ROIC claims to senior retail decision makers.