The real world is calling, are you listening?
Your customers are coming back to physical spaces. Here's how to make sure they're coming back to yours.
But first… welcome to the very first issue of this newsletter!
If you’re building a brand that exists in a physical space (brick-and-mortar or pop-ups or activations) then this is for you.
I’m Loren, co-founder of Mirour, TEDx speaker, and someone who’s spent over a decade in experiential, marketing, and entertainment.
My expertise isn’t in tech or merchandising: it’s storytelling. It’s understanding how moments shape the way people feel, decide, and remember.
I started Touchpoints because I believe we’re not only in the middle of a major shift back to the physical world, but a more immersive world.
And honestly? I think it’s exciting.
I want to help the brands building for it understand it, navigate it, and thrive in it.
Let’s start.
We All Touched Grass
I noticed it in myself first. Putting my phone down more. Choosing the coffee shop meet over the virtual one. Rawdogging walks. Supporting local stores vs clicking, “same day delivery”.
or proper terms: device-free walks
And then I looked around and realized everyone was feeling the same thing.
43% of peopleintentionally reduced screen time in the past six months.
One in three Gen Zconsumerscut smartphone useby 30%+.
Pinterest searches for “digital detox” are up 273%.
People are unplugging from the matrix and entering the real world again.
Third Spaces
I’ve always predicted the third space revitalization wouldn’t come from member clubs, they’d come from brand spaces.
It’s a win-win. People get access to experiences for free (mostly), and brands receive audiences who look forward to showing up: increasing brand affinity and dwell time, which increases revenue in return.
And it’s starting…
Tecovas went from online only to 60+ stores, and their new flagship in SoHo isn’t a shoe store. It’s a 4,500-square-foot restored 1892 building with a central lounge, drinks, live music, and customization services. Customers come in to hang out first and buy later. They’re building a Texas-style dance hall experience in New York City. Retail Dive named them one of six brands to watch in 2026.
Glossier built a brand online, then bet everything on physical. Their SoHo flagship is a 7,000-square-foot sensory environment: wet rooms for testing, communal spaces, architecture designed for discovery. The store became their most powerful loyalty engine. And now they’ve cut back on stores to focus on them being destination centered.
Barnes & Noble was supposed to be dead. Instead… 67 new stores in 2025, 60+ more in 2026. They gave managers autonomy to curate for their community. BookTok tables, author events, games, restaurants
And this is a good thing. Because what it means is: third spaces are coming. Experiential malls will be created. More reasons to go somewhere and be around people to meet, hang out, discover.
We’re watching a huge system shift happening live, and it’s being rebuilt by brands that understand people want somewhere to go.
57% is Gen Z’s year-over-year increase in mall foot traffic.
75% of shoppers aged 18–24 say third spaces influence where they shop.
5,500 net new US store openings projected for 2026. Closures at a three-year low.
What You Can Do With This
People are coming back to physical spaces. But they’re not coming back to browse shelves. They’re coming back for experiences, even tiny ones.
So the question isn’t “how do I get more people through the door?” It’s: someone just walked in, what happens next?
Here are three things you can do this weekend. No renovation. No budget. Just intention.
1. Give them a reason to stay.
Walk into your own store like a first-time customer. Look around. Is there a reason to linger after you’ve found what you came for? A reason to pull out your phone and text someone “you have to come here”?
This can be ridiculously simple. A coffee shop put up a sign that said “tell me a secret for a free coffee.” A boutique in a tourist neighborhood started handing out local recs guides to anyone who walked in. A kid’s bookstore made their front space completely toddler friendly so kids can just come sit and hang out with mom on rainy days.
Almost no renovations. But they turned a transaction into a moment, a reason to stay, to talk, to tell someone.
2. Study what the big brands are doing, and ask why.
Pick two or three brands you admire (or compete with). Don’t just look at what they’re doing, look at the behavior they’re designing for.
Tecovas isn’t serving drinks because they like hospitality. They’re doing it because dwell time drives spend. Barnes & Noble isn’t hosting author events for fun. They’re doing it because community drives repeat visits. Glossier didn’t build wet rooms because it’s cool. They did it because discovery drives conversion.
Write down: what behavior are they designing for? Then ask: what behavior do you want in your space?
3. Ask your customers what would bring them back!
Put it on your counter, your receipt, your Instagram story. Literally anywhere: “What made you come in today?”
If the answer is “I needed [product]”, that’s a transaction. That’s fine. But the brands winning right now are the ones where the answer is “I just love being here” or “My friend told me I had to check this place out.”
That gap: between “I needed something” and “I wanted to be here”, is the entire opportunity.
Your Space Cheat Sheet
Here’s the importance of why you need these:
Dwell time → Revenue. The longer someone stays, the more they spend. Give them reasons to linger that aren’t just more product.
Community → Repeat visits. Events, workshops, local partnerships, anything that makes people feel like your space is theirs.
Discovery → Conversion. When people find things on their own a staff pick, a quiz, a recommendation — they buy with more confidence than when they’re sold to.
Referrals → Growth. The most powerful marketing channel in physical retail isn’t ads, it’s referrals. And even better than a referral? Someone coming back and bringing someone with them. That only happens when the experience is worth it. Your customers become your marketing when the visit is the product.
The question to keep asking: Is my space somewhere people come to buy? Or somewhere people come back to, and bring someone with them?
Brand Spotlight: INDIEHOUSE Modern Fragrance Bar
Every issue spotlights a brand leading by example.
For our first, it had to be INDIEHOUSE.
With multiple locations in Atlanta, INDIEHOUSE is an interactive clean fragrance bar: 150+ niche scents from 42 independent brands you literally cannot smell anywhere else in the city.
Guests sit at a custom mixing bar and sip on complimentary champagne. There are workshops for building signature scents from scratch and educate you on what you like. They have lounge seats in their space for you to actually hang out. They have a membership club with perks for members-only. They book bridal parties, birthdays, team events. So people come back, and bring people with them.
This is what happens when a brand stops asking “how do we sell more product?” and starts asking “how do we make someone want to stay (and come back)?”
Want to be featured? Reach out to us telling us how great you are! contact@mirourmirour.com
About Touchpoints
Touchpoints is published by Mirour, the experience platform that helps brands unlock revenue from every person who walks through your door.
Our founders have deep roots in the brand, retail, experiential space.
Each issue breaks down one dimension of what’s changing: the cultural forces, the business implications, and examples of the brands building physical experiences worth showing up for.
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