Signals

New York – Hudson Yards, the new commercial and residential development on the city's West Side, includes a 1m-square-feet retail centre with an entire floor devoted to digital-first brands.

Combining culture, commerce and cuisine, the development brings together a range of cross-category shopping experiences, including the first brick-and-mortar stores for several direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. The mall’s second floor, for example, spotlights DTC companies such as online beverage brand Dirty Lemon and men’s fitness apparel label Rhone.

The space is also allowing these brands to explore the more experiential sides of their business, with the parent company of Dirty Lemon opening the Drug Store, a cocktail bar and cashier-less shop that sells lemonade drinks with charcoal, matcha and turmeric. ‘We want to showcase their brand in a way they can’t do behind a screen,’ Esty Ottensoser, retail specialist at The Related Companies, the firm developing Hudson Yards, tells WSJ.

As the relationship between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail evolves, new multi-brand retail formats are emerging and bridging the gap between digital first products and physical spaces.

Lidö, Sweden – Renewable diesel company Neste has launched The Zero Vacation, a travel experience designed to reduce consumers’ carbon footprint.

Taking place on the Swedish island of Lidö, vacationers can stay in the Zero Cabin, a cottage built with durable materials that has minimal impact on the environment. Every aspect of the travel experience, from dining to transportation, aims to produce as few emissions as possible, in line with Sweden’s aim to become fossil fuel free by 2045.

The Zero Vacation initiative hopes to show travellers who are conscious of their environmental impact that they do not need to travel to the other side of the world to enjoy a break, and should consider opting for a staycation instead.

The project taps into the flygskam – or flying shame – movement permeating in Sweden, as consumers boycott air travel in favour of transport with lower carbon emissions, such as trains. Read our Conscious Tourism Market to explore the growing opportunity for eco-travel.

Meal kits are not only growing in popularity as US-based consumers seek increasingly convenient food options, but expanding from web-exclusive subscription services to meals that customers can buy from their local grocery store. According to a new report by Nielsen, some 14.3m US households purchased kits in the last six months of 2018, an increase of 3.8m households compared to 2017.

Sales of in-store meal kits, which can often be bought in supermarkets, reached $93m last year, according for 60% of all meal kit user growth. The report also found that US retailers introduced 187 new meal kit options in 2018.

As convenience culture continues to dominate, consumers are increasingly searching for dining options that deliver in terms of speed and cost. For more, read our Eating In and Dining Out report.