Michael Marra - Designing Retail Stores to Maximize Revenue

On this episode, we’re joined by Michael Marra, the Co-Founder & Creative Director of Budder Creative, the agency behind modular fixture systems like Budder Groove™ and some of the most immersive dispensary retail spaces in North America. 

With roots in industrial design for global beauty and apparel brands, Michael has spent the last decade translating “best-of-CPG” shopper insights into a regulated, ever-evolving dispensary landscape.

Michael unpacks how Budder productized retail hardware, why budtenders shouldn’t carry the merchandising load, and where he thinks brick-and-mortar is headed as the category matures.

Episode Highlights:

🪑 Translating big-brand retail lessons to cannabis
🛒 Crafting the ideal dispensary customer journey
🏬 500-sq-ft bodegas vs 20 k-sq-ft megastores—design levers that change
🧑‍💼 “Budtenders are not your merchandising strategy”
🛍️ Building a profitable, brand-driven shop-in-shop
💄 What cannabis can steal from beauty retail
🔧 Budder’s plug-and-play POP tools for faster roll-outs
🏗️ The future of physical stores in an omni-channel world
📈 Trends Michael’s watching for 2025 and beyond

Table of Contents:

00:56 – Budder intro & origin story
03:02 – Designing retail for the world’s biggest brands → dispensaries
07:16 – Mapping the ideal customer journey inside a dispensary
11:53 – Designing a small bodega-style dispensary vs a megastore
17:26 – “Budtenders are not your merchandising strategy”
19:26 – How to build a successful shop-in-shop
23:16 – Beauty retail vs dispensaries
25:45 – Budder’s plug-and-play POP tools
32:12 – The future of physical retail stores
34:50 – Trends to watch

Links:

Budder Creative – https://www.buddercreative.com
Follow Michael on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-marra-9033338/
Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/
Need help with CPG production design? Visit https://www.kitprint.co/ 🚀