Sensory Retail: Designing Stores That Sell Through Sound, Scent, and Texture
COACH Tabby Pillow line installations - StudioXAG
Walk into your favorite store and close your eyes. What do you notice first? Maybe it’s the soft curated music, the subtle notes of vanilla or cedarwood in the air, or the feel of a perfectly folded cashmere sweater beneath your fingertips. That’s not coincidence, that’s sensory retail, and it’s quietly shaping how we shop.
At Blue Butterfly, we study these shifts closely. With retail experts like Scott Jackson on our team, we help clients and partners understand how the smallest sensory details can make the biggest impact. In a retail world where e-commerce has taken much of the transactional heavy lifting, physical stores are stepping into their superpower: creating experiences that can’t be clicked, shipped, or delivered in a box.
Let’s dive into how sound, scent, and texture can turn an ordinary store into an unforgettable one, because the best-selling moments are often the ones we feel.
Sound: More Than Just Background Music
Music doesn’t just fill the silence, it sets the pace. According to a Harvard Business Review study, tempo and genre influence how long shoppers linger and what they buy. Slow-tempo music can increase sales by up to 38% and encourages browsing, while upbeat playlists can energize a store and drive faster decisions.
Case in point: Abercrombie & Fitch once built an entire brand identity around pulsing beats that transported shoppers to a nightclub. Whether you loved it or hated it, you remembered it.
Luxury strategy: High-end retailers like Louis Vuitton often lean on classical or ambient tracks to reinforce sophistication and exclusivity.
Think of music as your store’s invisible sales associate, it whispers the mood and tempo of your brand.
Scent: The Subtle Storyteller
Here’s where it gets interesting: our sense of smell is directly tied to memory and emotion. Research by Scent Marketing Institute shows that scent can increase dwell time and even lift sales by double digits.
Smell isn't just memory, it sells. Multisensory brand recall can rise by up to 70%, and scent alone has been shown to increase daily retail sales by over 11% (Amra and Elma LLC). Another study reported scents boosted overall sales by up to 30%, with a 20% increase in foot traffic and a 15% boost in purchase size in one flagship store scenario
Nike tested the power of scent in store: when they introduced a signature “scent logo” which is a consistent fragrance designed to become as recognizable as a visual logo, shoppers were 84% more likely to buy. Abercrombie & Fitch took a similar approach with its iconic “Fierce” fragrance, pumping it through store vents so strongly it was detectable 30 feet away, helping over half of their shoppers identify the brand by scent alone.
Hotels like Westin have mastered this game, creating signature scents that instantly transport guests into “vacation mode” the moment they walk in.
For retailers and landlords, scent becomes part of place-making. Imagine leasing spaces in a lifestyle center where the air itself feels curated. That’s more than real estate - it’s brand real estate.
Texture & Touch: The Tangible Connection
While online shopping offers convenience, it lacks the tactile magic of touching, trying, and feeling products. That’s where texture comes in.
Apple stores are designed for touch, the smooth glass, cold aluminum, and warm wood tables invite exploration. The materials themselves reinforce Apple’s sleek brand identity.
Lululemon encourages shoppers to feel fabrics, stretch leggings, and test gear in motion, removing barriers between “just looking” and “I need this.”
IKEA: Displays are designed so customers can touch and interact with nearly every product, from kitchen utensils to sofas. Encouraging experimentation and longer dwell time.
For landlords and developers, creating textured environments, stone walkways, lush greenery, or soft seating can extend that tactile experience beyond the four walls of a store, making a property more memorable and dwell-worthy.
Across the World: Retail That Awakens the Senses
Jacquemus at Selfridges: The “Le Bleu” pop-up transformed retail into immersive surrealism bathroom motifs, vibrant hues, and pop-up vending machines created playful sensory theater.
Coach’s Pillow Tabby pop-up: This installation boosted foot traffic by 40% and sales by 140% during its opening weekend.
UGG Feel House: A cozy, interactive pop-up that invited shoppers to touch, try, and explore UGG’s products in a playful, Instagram-worthy environment, enhancing brand connection and creating a memorable tactile experience.
Universal Design Studio’s “Feel the Sound” exhibition treats sound as an architectural element, showing how acoustics and spatial design can shape mood, guide movement, and create immersive sensory experiences. Proving that sound is more than decoration.
Not all sensory stimuli are universally welcome. Inclusive stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, which lowered music volume and offering quiet shopping hours help accommodate neurodivergent shoppers, helping make sensory spaces comfortable for everyone
Why This Matters for Retailers & Property Owners
Sensory retail isn’t fluff; it’s strategy. In an era where every consumer has a phone in hand, experiences are the ultimate differentiator. Shoppers might come for the product, but they return for the way a space makes them feel.
For retailers: Curate soundtracks, signature scents, and tactile experiences that reflect your brand DNA.
For landlords: Think beyond square footage. Help tenants create multi-sensory environments and layer in property-wide cues (from landscaping to seasonal scenting) that elevate the experience for everyone.
As our retail expert Scott Jackson often says, “The real difference between a one-dimensional, digitally native brand and one with an evolved store experience is how it connects with your senses.”
True connection often happens in ways so subtle you don’t notice, it’s the way a space makes you feel. It’s the moment you step off the escalator at Nordstrom and the visual energy makes your heart beat faster. It’s walking through a greenhouse, where the humidity in the air and the fragrance of plants create an instant sense of vitality. It’s the rhythm of music that turns a store into a pulse you can feel.
These are what I call “energy zones” moments where your senses align with a space and you form a bond with the brand behind it.
At Blue Butterfly, we design for these moments. We create environments that don’t just sell, but stir emotion. Spaces where customers don’t just shop they connect. And in that connection, they discover why your brand matters.
Because when sensory design is done right, a store visit becomes more than a transaction. It becomes a story worth telling and that story sells.
