
Research Expertise
Our Areas of Research Expertise
The Retail Institute is a research centre that applies academic knowledge to solve industry challenges in consumer engagement with products, packaging and retail services. Our work is underpinned by three core research themes, each of which is lead by a senior academic expert and a team of research fellows:



Why Choose Academia?
The Retail Institute’s unique position within a university means that we can access knowledge from a range of academic disciplines and academic networks. We have access to a multi-disciplinary centre of expertise, research, and teaching. By combining our resources, have created an optimal environment to develop new solutions and ideas – the most conducive way to produce best quality research that benefits our commercial clients.
We help the retail supply chain industry by informing their strategies and knowledge needs through desk or experimental research techniques. We measure and translate data in a meaningful way, ensuring the statistical significance of your results and eliminate random data variations to provide you with objective and evidence-based conclusions to drive your business to success.
The Retail Institute membership scheme creates a unique environment for business networking opportunities through its annual programme to enable you to create links with you potential clients, peers and academic and industry experts.
Since 2013, DS Smith and The Retail Institute’s relationship has gone from strength to strength. The Retail Institute has supported innovation at DS Smith through their understanding of the retail supply chain. Their expertise have helped DS Smith build business cases, search wider for materials using their vast networks and help to understand the implications of emerging technologies.
Mike Collins - DS Smith