The event was an interesting discussion led by one retail expert to several others.  After his immersion into the US market, not just through the expansion work for Amoobi, but through extensive store visits, Olivier shared a fresh perspective and a first-hand look at what is working for US giants sparking new ideas for improving the shopper experience and fostering innovation in Europe. 

The conversation covered several topics and while some strategies may not be directly replicable in Europe, the overarching themes provide powerful inspiration.  

Here are some of the key takeaways Olivier shared:

US retailers are part of the community_. There is a palpable sense of belonging in the US market. Shoppers often refer to « their » stores, and retailers actively cultivate this connection . Through ingenious marketing campaigns that emphasize local products, they build empathy and community that nurtures fidelity.

Loyalty programs that deliver value and tangible savings. US loyalty programs are straightforward and effective. Often tied simply to a phone number, they focus on clear and immediate benefits which are reflected on the receipt after every purchase or extend to other types of services and products. Retailers also message the « total savings » on every receipt, reinforcing the program’s worth with each transaction.

US retail is about experience. The grocery trip is being elevated to an experience. Stores taken to new levels with imaginative decor (like depicting European streets) in-store bars and live cooking demonstrations. This, combined with novelty aisles, create your own selection and product-specific corners, turns the physical visit into an engaging and memorable activity.

Communication that connects. Humor is a key tool. In-store communication, packaging, and marketing campaigns are filled with puns and wordplay. Retailers use blunt and funny marketing campaigns to create a sense of proximity and build a more approachable and memorable brand personality.

While retailers craft the overall experience, brands play a dominant role in the layout. Merchandising is often organized in « brand blocks » rather than just by product category. It’s common to see brands get dedicated corners or even – almost- entire aisles (as is the case for Coca Cola),  fully adopting the « store within a store » concept, giving brands a dominant role in the shopper’s view.

Is all about the shopper. Stores are full of details that facilitate the shopping experience. This ranges from in-store navigation cues, with clear and large signages, to new technologies like smart shopping carts, cleaning robots at store and retail media.  While retailers may be slower to adopt some technologies, they are quick to test solutions that visibly improve the purchasing experience.

A constant stream of product innovation.  The pace of product launches is impressive. From new formats and « healthier » options to ready-to-cook meal kits, the market rapidly adapts to consumer preferences. The current « protein era, » with brands highlighting macronutrients and launching entire high-protein lines, is a perfect example of the market’s speed in responding to consumer trends..

This isn’t to say the US market is ahead in all aspects. Europe leads in areas like electronic shelf label (ESL) adoption and a much stricter legislation on drugstore products and competition between brands.  However even as e-commerce captures over 16% of total US retail sales (a figure set to exceed 20% by 2027),  according to the U.S. Census Bureau, American retailers are boldly investing in their physical footprint.

Why? They are following the consumer. So far in 2025, the majority of retail sales  came from physical stores  (83.7%)  and to the date 45% of US consumers still primarily shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, 27% regularly shopping both online and in-store, and new generations (Z) are opting to return to the physical shopping experience, the data* is clear: the store is far from dead, and physical stores have an enduring power. 

Whether or not every US strategy can be replicated in Europe, Olivier’s immersion provided a fresh, practical perspective on a market that refuses to stand still. It highlights the massive, evolving opportunities that continue to exist for the physical store and provide a valuable benchmark for anyone looking to innovate the European shopper experience.

To watch the complete « Bridging the Atlantic: Retail Innovation from the U.S to Europe » conference, [Click here]

Want to see the pictures of the event? [Click here]

*Data source: October 2025, Report, Capital One Shopping. Online vs In-Store Shopping Statistics.

Since their founding in 1923, Leroy Merlin has achieved to become the leader of the DIY market in Europe and one the global actors in their field. The French company has a turnover of over 7 billion euros and hires over 30,000 people in France, but also looks to improve their customer journeys within their many stores. As one of the forerunners in innovation, Leroy Merlin started a partnership with Amoobi in 2021 in order to do so.

In three years partnering with them, Leroy Merlin has extended the use of Amoobi’s services to a second store and might expand it further in the future. So far, Amoobi has already proven to be useful to challenge what Leroy Merlin thought their customer journeys were and to help with the understanding of the actual behavior of their customers. 

With data provided by Amoobi through an in-store, GDPR-compliant customer-tracking technology, the leaders of do-it-yourself learned how to trust external recommendations and apply them to forge a new customer journey.

Progressing in the Dark

With the rise in importance of data in daily business, something became quite clear for Leroy Merlin three years ago. Unlike online sales which provide a lot of data on the customer journey and, therefore, on how it could be improved and instill a turnover increase, in-store sales just don’t work that way. Actually, it meant that, back then, Leroy Merlin could only track 5% of its turnover, as 95% still depended on in-store sales. In other words, they were progressing in the dark. 

« Like any company, when you don’t have data, decisions are made a lot by intuition or based on experience. (…) And intuition is interesting, it is still as important, but it is interesting to confront it with data ». Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

That’s where their talks one year earlier with Amoobi came to plant the seed for a future, fruitful partnership. With initial talks starting deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, Leroy Merlin started to consider the necessity to gain more data within stores and found in Amoobi a company with a proven know-how. The proximity between Leroy Merlin’s headquarters in Lille, France and those of the Belgian company made it the perfect match in their search for a data-collecting tool. 

And Here Comes the Light

With Amoobi, Leroy Merlin found just the answer they needed for their lingering question: How could they analyze their customer journeys within the store?

“Amoobi allows you to record 100% of the customer journeys that come into the store with an accuracy close to, let’s say, 10 centimeters. For 100% of the customers who come into the store, we will know precisely – like online with your mouse – what they do, the time they spend, the interactions they can have with a department, the path they take, or the number of times they will go down such an aisle, such a path.“ Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

This incredible precision came to be only one of the factors which enlightened Amoobi as the perfect solution. Another one to stand out was it’s completely GDPR compliant, as the system doesn’t identify the clients by name, but picture them as little dots in the system while also removing employees from the analysis. Those features aligned with the strong values of Leroy Merlin in a world driven by the big data. 

Forging a New Understanding

Once Leroy Merlin got their hand on the first data from their pilot store, they were not ready for the first conclusions. 

“We used to believe our DIY store customers came to browse, spend time in the inspiration areas like they would in a mall, but our first data showed an average visit time of 14 minutes and 35 seconds.“ Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

The data collected by Amoobi challenged the way the company considered their customer journeys. As the initial thought was to make the journey longer so that the customer could buy more, it actually turned counter-productive. With the help of Amoobi’s expertise and powerful tool ASK, the way Leroy Merlin thinks their category management and merchandising evolved to become more precise and data-driven. 

The New Customer Journey

With the data in mind, Leroy Merlin changed their floor planning to optimize the customer journey through the store. This was made through several improvements:

• A space optimization for products within a section, often resulting in a 7 to 8% transformation rate;
• A more advanced space planning, in order to create new pathways and more direct journeys for the customer according to what they want in the store, such as shortcuts and express itineraries;
• A detection of the categories of products that generate the most requests and interactions with collaborators, allowing to correct potential problems or improve the merchandising of a category of products;
• A comparison with online customer journeys to apply similar improvements on in-store journeys.

The use of data in their store also helped Leroy Merlin prioritize some products in their category management.

“Thanks to Amoobi, we identified the categories that attract the most visitors and where we must maintain the shelves daily. Instead of trying to keep all 50 categories in perfect order, we focus on about 15, which impact the overall conversion rate significantly and should be maintained from Monday to Saturday.“ Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

The Expansion

The reality of one store is sometimes not the reality of all. That’s why, after their satisfaction with Amoobi in a first store, Leroy Merlin expanded their partnership to a second store. 

The first reason for a second store was to be able to challenge results between stores. By doing so, they realized a lot of results were actually similar in both stores and they took those lessons to another level by implementing those conclusions into the floor planning of an all-new store they opened recently. 

With a second store also comes a bigger testing capacity, which Leroy Merlin found really useful for A/B tests, with one store doing the A test and the other the B test, for example. The data provided by Amoobi also helps with the detection of any problem in the space planning in a store.

“We’re working in a 10,000m² store. With Amoobi, I can pinpoint where I should go to make the most improvements in the store. It saves a lot of time.“ Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

Taking note of similar results in both stores also allows Leroy Merlin to run different tests in those. The company decided to run five major tests in one store and five others in the second one, therefore doubling test possibilities and decreasing the time between tests. 

Building the Future

The use of Amoobi changed the way Leroy Merlin works with their category management and floor planning, after challenging their belief of how customers were behaving in their stores. With customers and collaborators at the heart of their activities, their partnership with Amoobi was the tool they were waiting for. 

“At Leroy Merlin, our aim is to improve the customer journey, making it as fast and effective as possible. That’s what we mean. Revenue is indeed a result of what we’ve put in place, not the other way around. That’s why it’s essential to highlight that Amoobi is great because it allows us to understand our clients, to provide answers to them, to know how we’re going to proceed.“ Dominique Monfort, National Sales Manager, Leroy Merlin

Now, Leroy Merlin is looking ahead to new challenges and new improvements to tackle with the help of Amoobi’s data. An extension of the partnership to a third store in a larger city, or even beyond the French borders, is in the works. As a forerunner in the DIY market for a century, Leroy Merlin continues to build the future.

Discover the critical differences and untapped opportunities that can influence the European retail strategy.

Meet the experts

Olivier Delangre – CEO & Co-Founder Amoobi

Just returning from the U.S. after 9 months working on expanding Amoobi’s footprint in America, Olivier brings us a compelling visual exploration of the US retail landscape with exclusive, on-the-ground observations to highlight the core differences among retail models and uncover tangible opportunities for your business.

Pierre-Olivier Beckers – Chairman Amoobi

Board Member at Amoobi, Former President & CEO, Delhaize Group and Chairman of the Consumer Goods Forum.His distinguished career also includes being named Manager of the Year and BEL20 CEO of the Year.

With more than 30 years in the retail world and a vast experience as the CEO of Delhaize Group, Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant will bring his view and expertise on the topics addressed by Olivier Delangre.

Join us on the 9th of October, Thursday

Agenda

16:00
Welcome & Guest Arrival.

16:30
Introduction by Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant.
Presentation by Olivier Delangre.

17:45
Networking & Drinks.

Location

At Rue de la Recherche 15, 1400 Nivelles CapInnove, Nivelles, Belgium.

Don’t miss out this great opportunity!

Click here to download the whitepaper.

Click here to download the whitepaper.

Download the press release

Click here to download the whitepaper.

Our new whitepaper shares insights and actions on why space optimization is often underutilized in boosting category performance.

Click here to download the whitepaper.

I’m thrilled to share an update on our progress towards becoming the leading in-store customer tracking solution for space optimization. Over the past 12 months, we’ve accomplished remarkable milestones, and we’re already excited about another growth-filled year in 2024.

Highlights of 2023:

• We closed the year with a remarkable 40% revenue growth, marking our fifth consecutive year of steady expansion. We also achieved a fourth consecutive year of profitability, strengthening our financial standing.

• We welcomed four new clients, all among the top 20 largest retailers or brands globally! We renewed all our clients (except one) and are grateful for their unwavering trust. We’re truly fortunate to have a remarkable roster of clients worldwide.

• Speaking of our clients, 65% of our recurring revenues originate from Europe (the remainder mostly from the US) and 72% of our revenues come from retailers. Our current projects span Belgium, France, Netherlands, UK, Germany, Spain, Greece, Brazil, and the US. We’ve now deployed our technology across 14 different US states, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, with more to come in 2024.

• Most significantly, our clients have achieved record sales growth thanks to reimagined space allocations in their categories. To illustrate, one of our clients, who utilized our insights across the majority of its category reviews, achieved an impressive average of +16% when testing new space allocations based on Amoobi recommendations!

• We’ve garnered praise from the industry and our clients – here are a few examples: Finalist of the FMI midwinter tech contest, recognized as a « disruptor in traditional category management » in this article, and recommended on a European platform for disruptive innovations.

• We’ve continued to enhance our insights platform ASK, recently gathering valuable feedback from our beloved users. We’re currently improving our internal tools to deploy our solution even more swiftly, and we’re developing some truly exciting new features for 2024!

We’re delighted to see our clients continuously coming up with innovative ways to maximize the value of our insights. We’re still on a mission to spread the word about our exceptional capabilities and why optimizing in-store space is crucial. We’re confident that we’re setting the standard for what it means to be a transformative, data-driven, space optimization retailer. Onward and upward!

Olivier Delangre
CEO Amoobi