The Retail Institute Membership

Join a network led by over 20 years of experience in retail consultancy and innovation.

The Retail Institute's membership provides access to our team of in-house and global retail experts, allowing you to get advice, guidance and support on your projects when you need it most. We have over 20 years’ experience in sourcing innovative solutions for some of the world’s leading brands and retailers. 

Our membership offers an opportunity to access knowledge through a range of publications, such as reports and quarterly bulletins, networking events and special interest forums. It also provides you with support from the research team at The Retail Institute, and our international network of partners and experts, and offers you a discount for any research projects or consultancy work.

Our membership fee is established based on your business size, with a maximum fee of £5,000 + VAT.

Annual reports

Our membership package includes access to two annual reports: one on The Future of Retail and the Future of Packaging. These provide our in-depth take on the year’s most pertinent issues and include exclusive research findings and expert analysis from our network. The Retail Institute conducts and annual consumer survey to support the two reports and gather further market relevant evidence along with the latest findings from academic research. Each report includes focus chapters covering key issues relating to packaging sustainability, reuse systems, consumer behaviour and the retail experience among others. Provided in a reader-friendly highly visual format, they are a great reference resource for our members.

Man walking through virtual shopping environment

Retail Reviews

Our Retail Reviews are published quarterly for members and include short articles on a range of relevant topics. Members provide much of the inspiration for article topics and we also draw from our extensive network to provide unique thought pieces based on both academic research and practical industry case studies. The Retail Review also includes a Members’ Corner, providing our businesses the opportunity to tell each other about recent successes and innovations. Our research snippets of novel developments in retail and packaging complete a package of elements that provide members with an entertaining and informative read.

Group of people at a members event at the University Business Centre

Membership events

Sometimes the best way to get to the essential aspects of an industry topic is to get people together and share our valued perspectives. The Retail Institute’s Membership Events do this with focused sessions on issues raised by members and with our flagship Annual Briefing. Our Members’ Forum and Academic Panel are half-day events that focus on a single topic of interest and include presentations from industry and academia followed by discussions on implications potential actions. The Annual Briefing is our conference that brings together the whole network with presentations on a diverse range of relevant subjects.

man and woman in business meeting

Bespoke services

Two aspects of our offer to businesses ensure that our research fits your specific needs, whether it is a small query or larger in-depth study. Our long running and highly regarded Ask the Expert service gives our members a resource they can call upon when they need technical advice on specific problem or an update on new trends and markets. For each query, we can devote a couple of research to find information to answer a member’s query. This could be a concentrated database search or a direct query to someone we know with expertise on that topic.

For topics that require a larger piece of research, we work with businesses to develop the best method for that topic and members get a discount on the study cost!

We were inspired by the workshop delivered by the Retail Institute’s academic team. We appreciated their enthusiasm and their wealth of knowledge which gave us some really invaluable insights that will help us transform our business objectives and positively impact on the future generations of our products.

Lauren Newman Nestlé Product Technology Centre

Join our community

Become a retail institute member

Join The Retail Institute and access research, insights and advice led by a team with over 20 years of experience in retail consultancy and innovation. As well as expert guidance, you’ll receive access to a range of publications, such as reports and quarterly bulletins, networking events and special interest forums.

Vegetables on a supermarket shelf
Woman smiling sat at a window