Here’s how former big-box stores transform into seasonal Halloween pop-ups. Despite the brick-and-mortar retail apocalypse taking place across the country, Halloween pop-ups like Spirit have endured. When traditional retailers file for bankruptcy and leave empty big-box stores in their wake, they also give Halloween retailers more potential locations to choose from. Shockingly, even the rise of online shopping can’t seem to kill the Halloween store. All of this would be impossible without the existence of vacant retail properties in need of tenants, even if those tenants only plan on being there for a few weeks. What’s bad for retail is good for Halloween pop-ups, at least to a point. These companies need vacant spaces to fill, but they also need nearby stores to draw in consumers.

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Everyone in retail, it seems, is playing in the toy game this year after the country's biggest toy store liquidated. But will there really be any surprises about who wins? The retail market for toys, on the whole, is worth $36.8 billion in revenue and covers more than 60,000 players. Store-based retailing of traditional toys and games is worth nearly $4.8 billion, down from about $6 billion in 2012.

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It made shopping a national pastime, long before Amazon and big-box stores. Even though it’s easy enough to dismiss Sears stores, with their bare shelves and empty parking lots, as an irrelevant relic of retailing’s past, the fact is that Sears was a pioneer, a household name that wasn’t just America’s largest retailer until Walmart overtook it, but a company that changed how Americans shopped and set the stage for the eretailers that would follow.

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Retail is changing faster than ever. New technology is increasingly being infused into stores, and the results are finally starting to show. Though there has been a lot of talk about how online shopping is changing the retail landscape, forcing traditional shopping centers like malls to close, it's only now that the future of the industry is truly coming into focus. And yes, it's digital, just as we were promised. Amazon and, more recently, Nike, have debuted store concepts that put their digital smarts front-and-center as they offer new experiences to customers. The advent of tech-focused physical stores proves that brick-and-mortar retail isn't going anywhere soon.

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Soothe me, heal me, while nourishing my mind, body and soul, said the masses. As everyday consumers push the health-and-wellness movement from the earthy-crunchy margins to the mainstream, retailers are going beyond selling Fitbit wellness trackers and organic, gluten-free bread. Ushering in the next iteration of healthy-living consumerism, merchants are taking on the overtones of the medical, psychotherapeutic and fitness communities. They’re wrapping the sale of “better for you goods” in services and experiences that aim at a kind of holistic, mind-body-soul approach to wellness, from a “Soul Lounge” that sells custom-orthotics at DSW to meditation workshops at Eileen Fisher stores.

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These brands shift their marketing-strategy investments from pre-promotion and sales to after-purchase brand loyalty. This builds brand-value advocacy in their consumers' lives, rather than accomplishing the short-lived benefit of a one-off sale. All have started thinking of new ways to provide value and build ongoing relationships with their customers, treating them more as members or users than one-time purchasers. Digitally savvy startup brands, in fact, obsess over experience, not revenue.

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Look around your town and think back to what it looked like 10 years ago. Chances are, the stores that line the streets or anchor the malls are different. Circuit City, Linens-n-Things and Radio Shack are all gone. In their place are names like Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off Fifth and Zara. It's a physical representation of how the consumer has changed over the last decade. The financial crisis of 2008 left an indelible mark on consumer behaviors that still affect how Americans spend today. There may be new reckoning to face as the advent of online shopping allowed for a new cohort of retailers to multiply. These new retail companies launched their businesses online and built their brands unencumbered by costly stores and past debts. Among them, Bonobos, Warby Parker and Allbirds, used the internet to grow their reach. Now established, they are chartering new territory by launching stores slowly and methodically.

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Loyalty comes through experiences and creating memories. The last several years have challenged retailers to become digital and then mobile brands. They’ve had to shift their focus from selling products to creating memorable experiences for consumers. Now the time has come for all brands to prioritize the user experience (UX), designing every customer-brand interaction with the user’s emotions and exact needs in mind. The UX mindset is more software developer than salesperson, and it works. Retailers today must treat visitors as ongoing users instead of merely potential buyers. Brands including Nordstrom, Sephora, Glossier and Warby Parker have implemented UX practices in retail to increase long-term customer loyalty.

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From Anthropologie to Walmart, old-school chains are starting to get a handle on this whole shopping-in-the-digital-age thing. The clearest signs of strength have come from the big-box category, where Walmart posted its best comparable sales growth in more than a decade and Target roared with its biggest increase on this metric in more than 13 years. Nordstrom Inc. saw solid results at both its department stores and off-price concept, and Urban Outfitters Inc. saw eye-popping double-digit increases in comparable sales growth at its namesake chain as well as Anthropologie and Free People. Just look at some of the pleasant surprises.

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The bazaar, the souk, the forum—wherever it emerges and whatever it’s called, the market has long served as the center of society. When the invention of agriculture brought the need for trade, towns grew around central gathering places where people could exchange not only goods and services but also ideas and inspiration. Along the way, the market became the mall, the mall became a Costco and the Costco became Amazon. As commerce increasingly became a commodity, the social functions of the authentic, community-making aspects of the market largely retreated behind shelves promising unlimited choice and convenience. As a result, a new paradigm emerged, one where community building and shareable, physical experiences serve as the foundation of commerce.

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