DSW will be opening a Houston location this weekend with a brand new look and layout. This is in an effort to get customers’ attention on the key brands.

You will find shops-inshops from national brands, such as Brooks Birkenstocks, Birkenstocks, Crocs, Vince Camuto, Crown Vintage and others. Designer BrandsDSW’s parent company calls this idea “Warehouse Reimagined”.

Roger Rawlins was the CEO of Designer Brands. He set out the goal of increasing the number of brands the company owns and maintaining the national brand sales. Rawlins stated that in order to achieve both those goals, “the physical experience we provide for our consumers as well as those of the national brands must evolve.” Rawlins spoke later with CNBC via Zoom.

DSW will be testing its new format, as customers return to shopping in shops after more than two years of restrictions and pandemic lockdowns. Mastercard SpendingPulse released a report Thursday stating that the total U.S. retail market, which excludes autos, increased 7.2% over last year. E-commerce transactions dropped1.8% and in-store sales increased by 10%

CNBC spoke with Dana Telsey in a phone interview. She stated, “They need to create excitement, and a wow’ to get people off of the couch and into a store. That requires more creativity.” Telsey Advisory Group CEO, consumer products consulting Telsey Advisory Group.

Rawlins says that a lot of the layout’s design was influenced by online shopping habits. According to Rawlins, nearly 90% DSW shoppers go online before going into the stores.

“These brands are so important to consumers, they search for their names before they search DSW,” said he.

Gabriella Carbone, a Deutsche Bank analyst, told CNBC via email that DSW’s new store format could be “impactful over the longer-term.” However, she said that the key to the success of the DSW store format is to showcase national brands with shop-in shops. This will help Designer Brands Inc. grow its relationships with vendors.

DSW will openly sell sizes in its “Warehouse Reimagined” shop. This allows customers to pick up their own size without any assistance from staff. If shoppers don’t feel like asking for help, they can self-check out. To allow shoppers to have more information than the brand or price displayed on their smartphones, QR codes will now be available.

While the new format is smaller – at around 15,000 square feet rather than the typical 25,000 square feet – Rawlins said he’s committed to offering consumers the same level of inventory, striving to remain in-stock for all sizes. He said that while fixed costs are lower due to the reduced square footage, the new layout allows the sale of the same quantity of inventory.

Rawlins won’t reveal financial goals for “Warehouse Reimagined”, but they aren’t making public disclosures. Industry observers such as Telsey, however, will be interested in knowing if there has been any sales growth and how they compare with the stores that were not remodeled.

Target, however, is pointing out the material sales gains in its hundreds of stores that have been renovated since 2017 in another subsector. John Mulligan, Target’s chief operating officer stated at its 2022 investor meeting in March that traffic improvements have helped drive an average of two to four percent increase in sales in the first and second years following remodels. Another one to two percentage points was achieved in the third year.

DSW will learn from the pilot program. Rawlins stated that roughly one fifth of DSW’s stores are up for renewal every year. Designer Brand may consider deploying the best parts of DSW stores when leases end. There are approximately 700 of them.

DSW has gone without one of its most important brands. Nike. Nike.

Telsey stated that “Losing Nike” is an enormous deal. It’s difficult to replace Nike. You have to be willing to reinvent yourself to make it work. That’s my opinion. [DSW is]Doing it.