Vitamin Shoppe unveils innovative Edgewater location

The Vitamin Shoppe is trying out something new with a tech-driven revamp of its Edgewater location.

The 3,185-square-foot store offers a designated area to take the brand’s Only Me health assessment, which provides personalized supplement recommendations based on current ailments and overall goals; a complimentary body composition analysis station; and a supplement sampling machine.

The store features a new digital product guide on an LCD flat screen with information from Vitamin Shoppe’s website, such as nutrition facts and usage guides for all the store’s products.

Healthy Awards loyalty members can also get free nutritionist consultations.

“Our newly remodeled Edgewater location represents the next generation of stores for The Vitamin Shoppe, and will inform the future direction of our total retail experience,” said Chief Executive Officer Sharon Leite in a statement. “We have taken the elevated aesthetic of a modern apothecary and imbued it with leading-edge technology and services that will simplify and demystify the experience of shopping for health and wellness supplements.”

To understand how in-store associate behavior, marketing campaigns and promotions guide the shopper path to purchase, the Vitamin Shoppe is deploying both traffic counting and advanced heat mapping technology from San Jose, Calif. analytics provider RetailNext that will then be leveraged to improve customer experience.

And when a customer does finish their trip, the new location has enhanced mobile POS checkout, allowing associates to complete purchases out on the sales floor via iPad.

The Secaucus-based retailer will open five new stores in a similar format through January 2020.