Intel is collaborating with Area 15, a purpose-built experiential retail and entertainment complex due to open in Las Vegas in April 2020.

To thrive in the digital age, traditional retailers and malls face a reinvent-or-die reality. Area 15 is tackling this by offering live events, immersive experiences and activations, and art installations, employing technology and more for the retail environment.

“Today, only top retailers can afford to explore and implement experiential design in their stores,” said Joe Jensen, Intel vice president. “We believe immersive, authentically engaging and inspiring experiences in retail are not only possible, but should be accessible for all. Ecosystem collaboration is in Intel’s DNA. Area 15 will help provide scalable, world-class experiential retail solutions for retailers and brands of all sizes.”

Research shows that 81 per cent of Generation Z prefer to shop in stores, and 73 per cent like to discover new products in stores. This offers the opportunity to transform how a new generation of consumers chooses to interact with brands. Retailers and brands can’t afford to miss out on engaging this demographic, which is on track to become the largest generation of consumers by 2020, responsible for $29bn to $143bn in direct spending.

The rise of the experience economy, fuelled by rapid shifts in technology-enabled design and culture, has resulted in the business-critical need to understand customers — not only Gen Z — and use those data to design a real-time personal experience.

The alliance will initially focus on immersive experiential retail design with the launch of the Intel Experience Incubation Hub, a multiuse venue for innovation and collaboration. It will allow retail ecosystem partners – from creatives to technologists – to test new design concepts and technologies.

Opening in April, the Area 15 property in Las Vegas aims to be the gravitational centre for the new experience economy, building a flexible platform where Intel innovation will play an integral role. The technical and physical infrastructure will be modular, allowing for innovations coming out of the hub to be tested for proof of concept and scalability – within Area 15 and beyond – in various forms, from pop-ups to short-term engagements to more permanent installations.

Early collaborators and experiences featured in the Experience Incubation Hub include Artist Trav, Papinee, Pressure Point Creative, ThenWhat and Variant.

“Area 15 is a radical reimagining of retail, where visitors can expect to be authentically engaged and inspired in an otherworldly setting,” said Winston Fisher, CEO of Area 15 and partner in Fisher Brothers. “Experience design cannot be separated from technology; it is essential that the two are intertwined and co-developed. That’s where our collaboration with Intel comes in. Together, we’re raising the standard of experience design, and developing best practices for combining technology, art and commerce in exciting, unexpected ways.”