Retail is no longer the endpoint, it's part of the experience

By Nathan SpangPresident and Chief Growth Officer, RSM&August 2026 · 3 min read

One of the biggest shifts I saw around this World Cup was the transformation of retail from a place where consumers purchase products into a place where they experience culture.

Historically, retail activations around major sporting events were largely about awareness: put the brand in front of consumers, drive traffic, distribute samples and hopefully create some incremental sales. That’s changed.

The most sophisticated brands are now treating retail as an extension of the fan experience and building experiences with measurable business outcomes from the start.

We’re seeing experiential, retail media, loyalty and digital commerce converge in ways that simply weren’t as integrated in previous tournaments. A QR code isn’t just a digital add-on. A product display isn’t just merchandising. A customization station isn’t just entertainment. Each touchpoint can play a role in moving a consumer from engagement to consideration to purchase.

The best example is the FIFA Fresh Zone we created with Unilever at a key Walmart store in Kansas City.

Rather than creating another traditional product display, we transformed Walmart’s Fourth Wall into an immersive soccer destination. Shoppers could sample products, compete in branded challenges, create personalized content and interact with multiple Unilever brands within one cohesive experience.

The results demonstrated the power of making retail part of the cultural moment: more than 11,000 shopper interactions, 8,300 product samples, 4.3 million digital impressions and a 7.7% influencer click-through rate.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

What mattered was that consumers had a reason to stop. Then a reason to engage. Then there is a reason to explore. And ultimately, a reason to connect that experience back to the brands.

That’s the future of experiential commerce.

We’re moving away from the idea that retail is where the customer journey ends. Retail can actually be where the customer journey begins.

The brands that recognize that will stop asking how to get consumers into a store and start asking a much more valuable question:

What can we create in the store that consumers genuinely want to be part of?

The future of retail isn’t just about giving consumers a place to buy. It’s about giving them a reason to participate and making the path from experience to purchase seamless.

And the opportunity is only getting bigger.

As we look toward next year, live sports will continue to become bigger cultural moments, bringing fans together across stadiums, cities, communities and screens. For brands, that creates an enormous opportunity to rethink how experiential and retail work together.

The question shouldn’t simply be, “How do we activate around the next big sporting event?” It should be, “How can we bring the energy of that event into the places where consumers already live, shop and engage with brands?”

That could mean turning a retail environment into a destination for fans. Creating opportunities to play, compete, customize or connect. Using digital and retail media to extend the experience beyond the physical space. Or creating a seamless journey where participation leads naturally to discovery, loyalty and purchase.

The brands that win in the next era of sports marketing will be the ones that stop treating retail as a distribution channel and start treating it as a stage for participation and commerce.

Because as live sports get bigger, the opportunity isn’t simply to reach more fans.

It’s to give more fans a reason to step into the experience and give brands a more meaningful way to move from cultural relevance to commercial impact.

About the author

Nathan SpangPresident and Chief Growth Officer, RSM&Continue the conversation: nathan.spang@rsmand.live