The Creative Retail Awards has published its 2026 Shortlist Guide, revealing the projects competing for retail design honours this year, and confirming that the ceremony will take place at The Clapham Grand in London on Thursday 15 October.
Drawn from more than 500 entries, the shortlist spans twenty categories and five continents, taking in flagship stores, festive windows, pop-ups, hospitality, supermarkets and in-store VM. It is, by some distance, the most international list the Awards have produced.
A global field
The shortlisted work reaches from Tokyo to New York and Riyadh to Sydney. Among the projects competing this year are Coach’s Winter Forest at the Lotte East Busan Outlet in South Korea and its Tabby Shop pop-up in Sydney; the Armani x Kith pop-up at Topping Rose House in New York; Bulgari’s Diva’s Dream pop-up in Riyadh; RH Paris on the Champs-Élysées; and Twelve at House of Shinsegae Cheongdam in Seoul.
Closer to home, the shortlist reflects a strong year for British retail. Fortnum & Mason appears for its Enchanted Christmas display, alongside window schemes A Perfect Spring Day and Fresh Tea Infusion. Harrods is recognised twice, for the fifth-floor Shoe Heaven scheme with Christian Louboutin and for Brunello Cucinelli’s Christmas takeover. Selfridges is shortlisted for its Beauty Hall and its Disney Christmas Windows, while Ikea’s Oxford Street store makes the list for an LED window façade and immersive live studio.
Breadth as well as reach
If the geography is wide, the range of work is wider still. The Design Museum’s Wes Anderson exhibition sits alongside Pets at Home’s Vets for Pets rollout. B&Q’s Wandsworth mural with artist Dominika Karc competes in Creative Collaboration against BOSS x Beckham and New Era’s MLB Subway Series. Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden, Whole Foods Market on the King’s Road, Waitrose Newbury, Dr. Martens’ Soho Beacon Store, Porsche Now Liverpool and Neal’s Yard’s Covent Garden flagship all feature.
Sustainability runs strongly through this year’s entries, with Fortnum & Mason’s Resourceful Nature, Sainsbury’s Ecoform, Diesel’s Denim_Salling and Illium store, and Woolworths South Africa’s sustainable Christmas tree all shortlisted.