Case Study
Challenge
Best Buy was losing camera shoppers to specialty retailers, stores perceived as having deeper product knowledge, wider assortment, and more personalized service. Beyond competitive pressure, there was a larger brand perception problem: consumers saw Best Buy as a place to buy electronics, not a place to learn and connect.
The opportunity wasn't just to sell more cameras. It was to reframe Best Buy as a creative contributor in people's lives, a brand that helps you capture your daughter's first birthday cake, your grand kid's track meet, the moments you'll never get back. And to give store employees the tools and confidence to have those conversations authentically.
Solutions
The Camera Experience Shop was designed from the human experience outward, not as a product display, but as a learning environment rooted in real-life experience needs.
Permanent in-store experiential fixture designs were installed. This specialty department featured signature practical and useful demonstrations, such as a low-light environment, simulating birthday cake candlelight (for capturing intimate, ambient moments, which are surprisingly difficult to capture), and a motion simulation using a spinning windmill display (for fast-moving subjects such as wild toddlers and sporting events). Each scenario gave customers and staff a natural, human entry point into product demonstrations and sales.
No-cost, weekend photography classes brought customers into stores for a curated VIP learning experience to learn everything from what the word 'aperture' means to conceptual visual-spacial skills needed for great photography such as "the rule of thirds." Great sponsors like Canon and Nikon helped furnish unpackaged products for IRL experiential product sampling as well, which was absolutely vital for customers to actually understand and learn what settings like 'shutter priority' could do for them. The also ensured the experience never felt like a sales pitch.
Customers left with custom Photography Tips & Tricks that were affixed to lanyards allowing them to continue to keep it as a handy reference to what each setting did, while remaining hands-free to focus on their capture.
Perhaps the most underrated outcome of this project was what it did for store staff. Employees went from feeling like sales staff to genuine, value-providers with newfound conversational entry points that pulled at heartstrings. They could go from, “Do you want to buy this $500 camera lens?,” to, “Do you want to try to perfect your ability to take birthday cake photos?” They were now inside of the moment customers actually saw value in, miles away from sales gunk that makes people want to shop from home. The strategic experience design of them program enabled staff to connect authentically as humans first. Any commission from upselling a $500 lens was a bonus.
Summary
What if an electronics store could feel like the most inspiring place in your neighborhood to learn photography? That was the motive behind the Best Buy Camera Experience Shop, an experiential retail concept designed to transform how customers shopped for cameras and how store employees served them.
The Camera Experience Shop reimagined Best Buy's camera department as a hands-on discovery environment, complete with practical low-light demonstrations and motion photography simulations built directly into the store fixtures. At launch, in-store photography workshops invited customers to learn from world-class photographers, including National Geographic photographers, turning weekend mornings into a VIP educational experience and a trip to Best Buy into something genuinely memorable.
What started as a 6-store pilot grew to 140+ locations within months, and has since expanded to 250+ dedicated Camera Experience Shops across North America.
"This project opened my eyes to what intentional human-centered experience design can do. It was an absolute thrill to work with so many wonderful people to build the program and then experience firsthand the joy it brought to the community, customers, and staff.
Absolute praise to Best Buy for being an industry leader and investing in human-centered retail experiences like this. "
–Katie Himmel,
Kayto Group Founder
Best Buy: Camera Experience Shop
Type: Experiential Retail Design
Location: Nationwide
Project Tags: Experience Design, Retail Customer Experience, Employee Enablement, Community Programming, Sponsorships