Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Visual Merchandising
Consulting, Education, Research & Photography
Retail is built for people:
for the teams who run it and
the customers who enter it.
retail, wholesale, and visual merchandising services
Visual merchandising strategy
Retail space and window display analysis
Display guideline development for retail and wholesale
Store and showroom zoning and product presentation
Translation of intention into retail space
Team conversations and strategic feedback loop
Support for new store concepts, launches, and updates
University courses
Executive training
Professional workshops
Retail strategy and visual merchandising lectures
Display analysis sessions
Student mentoring and thesis supervision
Academic team training on visual merchandising as a discipline
VM Archive
VM Journal
Self-financed long-term retail display observation
Window and store display analysis
Taxonomy of Displays® research
Visual merchandising case studies
Documentation of how brands communicate through space
Window display and retail interior photography
Exhibition and pop-up photography
Editorial retail photography
Build retail spaces that can be:
explained and understood,
managed and remembered,
felt and returned to.
Every space shapes behaviour.
Every display says something.
Every design decision has consequences.
i see windows is dedicated to analysing, studying, and understanding those effects from the inside:
how retail spaces are created, how they communicate, and what they invite people to do before, during, and after each encounter.
Stop making displays.
Start building responsible spaces.
get in touch
Because responsible spaces are not only better for people.
They are clearer, more meaningful, more memorable, and ultimately more valuable for the businesses that build them.
Reach out to talk retail, a simple conversation can go a long way.
selected customers
faq
Visual merchandising consulting helps brands, retailers, and retail teams understand how their stores, windows, displays, and showrooms communicate with customers. It combines retail strategy, spatial communication, product presentation, and customer behaviour to create retail environments that are easier to understand, manage, remember, and return to.
Visual merchandising influences how customers navigate a space, discover products, understand a brand, and make purchasing decisions. Effective visual merchandising improves clarity, strengthens communication, supports sales objectives, and creates a more coherent retail experience for both customers and retail teams.
Services include visual merchandising strategy, retail space analysis, window display analysis, store zoning, showroom development, display guideline creation, executive education, university teaching, professional workshops, retail research, and retail photography. Through the VM Archive, VM Journal, Taxonomy of Displays®, and independent field research, i see windows documents and analyses contemporary retail environments to better understand how brands communicate through space. Whether through consulting, education, research, or photography, the objective remains the same: helping create retail spaces that are easier to understand, manage, remember, and return to.
The Taxonomy of Displays® is an independent research framework developed by Peter Hamer to analyse and classify visual merchandising displays. It studies how brands communicate through combinations of product, communication, brand assets, retail design, and external factors, providing a structured approach to understanding visual merchandising strategies.
Peter Hamer is a visual merchandising consultant, educator, researcher, and retail photographer based in Milan, Italy. With more than twenty years of experience across retail, luxury fashion, education, and visual communication, his work focuses on understanding how retail spaces communicate, shape behaviour, and create value for both customers and businesses. Peter holds a degree in Industrial Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and a Master’s degree in Fashion Experience & Design Management from SDA Bocconi School of Management. His approach combines design thinking, business strategy, spatial communication, and continuous independent research into visual merchandising and retail environments.
His professional experience includes roles at Louis Vuitton, Prada, and La Perla, as well as consulting projects for international brands, retailers, and educational institutions. Alongside his consulting practice, he teaches visual merchandising, retail strategy, and sustainable fashion across higher education and executive programs in Europe. As founder of i see windows, Peter documents and analyses retail spaces through consulting, education, research, writing, and photography, with a particular interest in how brands communicate through stores, windows, displays, and customer experiences. His ongoing research has led to the development of frameworks such as the Taxonomy of Displays® and forms the foundation of his work on responsible retail spaces and dialogical retail.