A part of the Studio Hagger group of companies
A part of the Studio Hagger group of companies
Spaces that perform.
Brands people love.
We help automotive retailers build environments that drive real results — more footfall, stronger conversion, and customers who come back.
Spaces that perform.
Brands people love.
We help automotive retailers build environments that drive real results — more footfall, stronger conversion, and customers who come back.
A consultancy dedicated to practical strategic retail design applied to the business of selling vehicles. Building resilient, sustainable, profitable businesses.
Studio Hagger has over 25 years of experience advising the automotive sector, working in creative partnership with brands including Jaguar Land Rover, Citroen, Alfa Romeo and VW Group. Our relationship with Jaguar Land Rover for example, extends over 18 years, largely under the aegis of long-time Chief Creative Officer Professor Gerry McGovern OBE.
Studio Hagger is a retail design consultancy. For over three decades, we've helped clients build selling environments that demonstrate real success — through the till, not just on the page. Sustainable, profitable, expandable and flexible brands that don't merely enhance customer experience, but that create brand fans.
We've worked across fashion — value, high street and high fashion — travel retail, financial services, luxury, high-end hospitality, hotels and department stores.
From this vast and diverse experience, we know what works and what doesn't. We bring that knowledge and hard-won wisdom to bear on the automotive selling world — a category facing more change, more complexity, and more opportunity than ever before.
We know how to increase footfall and dwell time. How to raise conversion rates and deepen customer engagement. How to reduce staff attrition and build the kind of pride and loyalty that shows up through the till — and makes customers come back time after time.
35 years of retail wisdom, applied to automotive.
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
35 years of retail wisdom, applied to automotive.
Studio Hagger is a retail design consultancy. For over three decades, we've helped clients build selling environments that demonstrate real success — through the till, not just on the page. Sustainable, profitable, expandable and flexible brands that don't merely enhance customer experience, but that create brand fans.
We've worked across fashion — value, high street and high fashion — travel retail, financial services, luxury, high-end hospitality, hotels and department stores.
From this vast and diverse experience, we know what works and what doesn't. We bring that knowledge and hard-won wisdom to bear on the automotive selling world — a category facing more change, more complexity, and more opportunity than ever before.
We know how to increase footfall and dwell time. How to raise conversion rates and deepen customer engagement. How to reduce staff attrition and build the kind of pride and loyalty that shows up through the till — and makes customers come back time after time.
Our approach to consultancy for automotive selling environments is predicated upon a long established track record in designing for retail in the wider world, from department stores to international brand chain roll-outs to design for airports around the world. Our deep dive into the automotive sector and its very specific issues has been with the single aim of finding ways to persuade the customer to commit to the brand and to the vehicle, be it as a purchase, a lease or a ride-hail.
WHAT WE DO
WHAT WE DO
A retail engine that's a genuine pleasure to use.
For customers and staff alike. We design experiences that work hard and generate sustainable profit in a world fraught with uncertainty.
01
Customer Experience
We design spaces that draw people in and keep them engaged — environments that feel intuitive, distinctive, and worth returning to. Brand fans, not just buyers.
The starting point for us is always the customer. Because, to the customer, every vehicle purchase is a luxury purchase.
We have developed successful automotive retail offers in countries including:
Australia - Bahrain - Belgium - Brazil
Canada - China - Denmark
France - Germany - India - Ireland
Italy - Japan - New Zealand
Norway - Republic of Ireland - Saudi
Arabia - South Africa - South Korea
Spain - Sweden - Ukraine - United
Kingdom - UAE - USA - Vietnam
A retail engine that's a genuine pleasure to use.
For customers and staff alike. We design experiences that work hard and generate sustainable profit in a world fraught with uncertainty.
02
Commercial Performance
Great design without great results is decoration. We focus on measurable outcomes: conversion rates, average transaction value, profit per square foot. Sustainable and expandable.
03
People & Culture
Staff pride and loyalty are retail superpowers. We create environments where people want to work — reducing attrition, raising performance, building teams who believe in what they sell.
01
Customer Experience
We design spaces that draw people in and keep them engaged — environments that feel intuitive, distinctive, and worth returning to. Brand fans, not just buyers.
02
Commercial Performance
Great design without great results is decoration. We focus on measurable outcomes: conversion rates, average transaction value, profit per square foot. Sustainable and expandable.
03
People & Culture
Staff pride and loyalty are retail superpowers. We create environments where people want to work — reducing attrition, raising performance, building teams who believe in what they sell.
THE LANDSCAPE
The forces reshaping automotive retail.
We live in a world of all encompassing uncertainty. The retailers who thrive won't be the ones who react fastest — they'll be the ones who built resilience before they needed it.
We live in a world of all encompassing uncertainty. The retailers who thrive won't be the ones who react fastest — they'll be the ones who built resilience before they needed it.
THE LANDSCAPE
The forces reshaping automotive retail.
Measurable Effectiveness:
As an example, the dealership we designed in Beijing, moved from its previous mid-level position to become No. 4 in the whole of China in profitability and No. 1 in customer satisfaction and loyalty - over just one year.
Geo-political flux
Tariffs, supply chain disruption, energy price volatility — the external environment will keep shifting. We help retailers design for adaptability, so they can absorb shocks without losing momentum.
Global Warming
Building sustainably is no longer the whole story. The physical structure of retail spaces needs to fundamentally rethink. Buildings must be flexible - the days of buildings as mere manifestations of a logo are numbered.
Technological Advance
Software-defined vehicles and two-year development cycles from concept to forecourt will pose profound challenges. Forms of ownership will change. How will dealers adapt when customers start to perceive cars the way they perceive a smartphone?
The Rise of Chinese brands
Emerging Chinese brands are a formidable force. Legacy brands have extraordinary heritage — the opportunity is learning to tell those stories in ways that resonate now, and compete with confidence.
AI and the New Discovery Journey
When someone asks an AI to recommend the best SUV or the best small family car, only a handful of brands make the list. Being one of them requires a different kind of presence — built on reputation and story.
Generational Shifts
Populations are growing older in the developing world. Younger generations rewriting the rules of car ownership and mobility. Gen Z employees with entirely different expectations of work. All of this needs to be reflected in how spaces are designed and how teams are led.
The Rise of Chinese brands
Emerging Chinese brands are a formidable force. Legacy brands have extraordinary heritage — the opportunity is learning to tell those stories in ways that resonate now, and compete with confidence.
Global Warming
Building sustainably is no longer the whole story. The physical structure of retail spaces needs to fundamentally rethink. Buildings must be flexible —the days of buildings as mere manifestations of a logo are numbered.
AI and the New Discovery Journey
When someone asks an AI to recommend the best SUV or the best small family car, only a handful of brands make the list. Being one of them requires a different kind of presence — built on reputation and story.
Geo-political flux
Tariffs, supply chain disruption, energy price volatility — the external environment will keep shifting. We help retailers design for adaptability, so they can absorb shocks without losing momentum.
Generational Shifts
Populations are growing older in the developing world. Younger generations rewriting the rules of car ownership and mobility. Gen Z employees with entirely different expectations of work. All of this needs to be reflected in how spaces are designed and how teams are led.
Technological Advance
Software-defined vehicles and two-year development cycles from concept to forecourt will pose profound challenges. Forms of ownership will change. How will dealers adapt when customers start to perceive cars the way they perceive a smartphone?
Competitive challenges are rife
The traditional automotive business is currently under unprecedented pressure. Intrinsic pressures that effect all areas of traditional automotive dealerships:
New Car Sales
The market is flooding with new brand entrants which are not tied to old school restrictive retail network structures with the ability of having a direct relationship to customers.
AI: Customers research using AI which only offers the top five ‘best’ - how do retailers rise to this challenge?
Shorter development time from concept to forecourt for new vehicles - from 7 - 8 years down to 2, driven by China Speed engineering will impact on sales patterns and customer attitudes - this could increase the popularity of leasing and drastically change the used car market as a result - what does this mean for retailers?
1%
©️Engin Akyurt @ Unsplash
70%
of women mistrust car dealers
43%
mistrust the car brands themselves
Automotive retail has a trust problem. We know how to fix it.
In an industry beset by mistrust and scandal, the most impacted group are female customers — but they're the tip of the iceberg. Many customers show real reticence and cynicism at the thought of embarking on the car buying process.
This has moved many to online apps and independent non-brand retailers, eroding loyalty. Though 70% of customers say they'll stick with their existing car brand, in reality only a third do.
We know how to make automotive spaces inviting to reticent and cynical customers. There are consistent devices — proven across retail — that boost street shout, enhance footfall, support storytelling and significantly raise conversion rates. We bring all of them to bear.
of customers satisfied with the existing buying process - Deloitte
Automotive retail has a trust problem. We know how to fix it.
70%
of women mistrust car dealers
43%
mistrust the car brands themselves
1%
of customers satisfied with the existing buying process - Deloitte
In an industry beset by mistrust and scandal, the most impacted group are female customers — but they're the tip of the iceberg. Many customers show real reticence and cynicism at the thought of embarking on the car buying process.
This has moved many to online apps and independent non-brand retailers, eroding loyalty. Though 70% of customers say they'll stick with their existing car brand, in reality only a third do.
We know how to make automotive spaces inviting to reticent and cynical customers. There are consistent devices — proven across retail — that boost street shout, enhance footfall, support storytelling and significantly raise conversion rates. We bring all of them to bear.
CHINA EXPERTISE
East to West.
West to East.
With 8 years of deep experience working in China, we understand the market, the mindset, and the buying behaviours that define it — in a way that no brief or research report can replicate.
CHINA EXPERTISE
East to West.
West to East.
With 8 years of deep experience working in China, we understand the market, the mindset, and the buying behaviours that define it — in a way that no brief or research report can replicate.
Servicing
EVs and increasing autonomy impinges on servicing needs:
The fewer moving parts of TVs, reduced accidents - less bodywork issues, but higher value repairs.
Software Defined Vehicles leads to changes in the type of staff expertise needed.
SDVs can be maintained with updates. Data rich integration by AI means retailers can be proactive
Western brands entering China
Go-to-market strategies grounded in how Chinese customers actually discover, consider, and buy cars. Deep cultural and commercial understanding — not surface-level research.
Chinese brands going global
Cultural intelligence and retail expertise to build credibility and genuine connection in new markets. Understanding the nuances that separate a brand that's present from a brand that belongs.
Cross-cultural commercial insight
Our knowledge of global cultural and commercial differences makes us an invaluable ally for any brand navigating the complex territory between East and West.
China’s Golden Age of the Car?
The inexorable march of Chinese automotive OEMs seems unstoppable. How do legacy brands fight, survive and thrive in this brave new world? And how do Chinese brands present themselves as cultural natives in world markets?
What western OEMs need to understand is that China doesn’t lose. It wins or it learns.
Top ten global car exporting countries
2016
(91 million cars sold)
Top ten global car exporting countries
2026
(90 million cars sold)
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Design is an act of romance.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Design is an act of romance.
When it comes to selling spaces, there are consistent devices that will boost street shout, enhance footfall, support storytelling and significantly raise strike rates. We know what they are. We know how to deploy them.
With our team's decades of experience in conceiving, developing and deploying retail solutions around the world — across commerce, hospitality and the service industries — we understand customer behaviours deeply. And how profoundly those behaviours shift according to cultural context.
We can articulate solutions that convey a powerful value message. Or we can conjure designs that evoke luxury and allure — engendering a sense of rarity and desire. Or we can do both. Often, the most compelling spaces do exactly that.
GET IN TOUCH
Let's talk about what's possible.
Whether you're rethinking your retail estate, exploring new markets, or building for a future you can't fully predict — we'd love to help.
GET IN TOUCH
Let's talk about what's possible.
Whether you're rethinking your retail estate, exploring new markets, or building for a future you can't fully predict — we'd love to help.
Extrinsic pressures:
Geo-Political, Health, Ecological, Technological and Generational Changes impact on supply chain, inventory and consumer behaviours.
Understanding the buying psychology of the consumer and the strategies with which to influence this has never been more important.
Yet - many markets, UK and USA for example, are hindered by archaic sales mechanisms and restrictive legislation. The old-school dealer network system presents some serious drawbacks to retail innovation and adaptability.