Now is the time

Capital’s Ecommerce and Retail Summit is the biggest retail yearly conference in Bulgaria. The event aims to help and navigate the future-proofed leaders from Bulgaria and the region in line with the tectonic shift in the industry. The forum remains the one must-attend events to exchange knowledge, experience, and best practices and create partnerships that drive businesses forward. 

Every year executives from major brands like VISA, PWC, Kantar, TBI hold keynote presentations and take part in the discussions on stage. As one of the biggest retails and FMCG leaders in Bulgaria and internationally Lidl also traditionally uses the stage to present the latest innovations and strategic decisions which drive the industry.

Ecommerce and Retail Summit has traditionally focused on… e-commerce and digitalisation of the retail sector. 
This year we were tasked with creating the presentation and content of Milena Dragiyska’s keynote presentation to the audience

to create the concept and content and most importantly - stunning design to support it. 

 Let’s not do what everyone else does and look at the future from another perspective. 

What is the future of retail? What does the consumer actually want, especially when it comes to the local supermarket?

Research shows that 29% of EU consumers are spending their income in supermarkets on food products, beverages, clothes and household goods. Bulgarians? 50% of their income is spent in the same categories. 

At the same time 78% of Europeans believe that environmental issues have a direct effect on their lives. When asked what the solution would be and what steps we as a plant must take to reduce our environmental impact, 33% of consumers said we need to change the way we consume while another 31% said we must change the way we produce. 

When we dive deeper into the bigger picture, we can see that one third of the gas emissions in the world are generated by the food system which includes agriculture, land, packaging and other activities. The retail industry is responsible for only 4% of the world's gas emissions. 
But at the same time the retail industry is in the position to influence the whole value chain - from the producers through packaging reaching the end consumer. 

We know that modern users are way more conscious when it comes to the products they buy every day. At the same time they are finding it hard to buy the best sustainable and consciously produced products due to various issues: price, availability, poor understanding of the matter, etc. 

Lidl has introduced a number of measures aimed at reducing its carbon footprint, by using green energy, increasing recyclable packaging, buying sustainably and much more. Lidl has also introduced climate neutral products as well as items produced entirely from plastics, bio products… 

So stepping on the 4% of gas emissions that the retail industry is responsible for, we decided to focus on the huge secondary impact retail chains like Lidl have on changing the whole system and saving the planet with the help of its consumers. 

What we put in the shopping bag - our responsibility

The Lidl model is focused on two key principles: optimal price-quality ratio and high quality should be affordable and available. So we added a third: what is sustainable has to become affordable and available. 

The design was inspired by paper cut-out installations as a visual representation of the complexity of the topic. Layers over layers make it possible to see the whole picture, showing us that the change can be achieved only by working together. 

The colors are primarily blue with a green accent further showing the company's views on preserving the environment as a part of our lives.

The “bag” obviously played an instrumental role in the design of the keynote - it is the most recognisable supermarket item and in Lidl’s case - is 100% recyclable.