Harding+. Creating Engaging Brand Experiences at Sea

Harding+ is the cruise industry’s leading retail partner, delivering immersive shopping environments on board some of the world’s most luxurious ships. Working with global brands across multiple categories, Harding+ focuses on creating engaging, high-quality retail experiences that inspire discovery and brand connection for guests at sea.

Operating in a uniquely challenging environment, Harding+ needed to deliver digital retail experiences without reliable internet connectivity — while still meeting the expectations of modern, experience-driven consumers.

Unlike traditional retail environments, cruise ships often operate with limited or unreliable internet access. This created a major barrier to delivering interactive, digital-led retail experiences onboard.

Harding+ needed a solution that would:

• work reliably without live internet access

• allow guests to explore brands and product ranges digitally

• support immersive, branded activations in-store

• remain easy for internal teams to manage and adapt

Crucially, these experiences needed to support engagement and awareness, rather than direct purchasing.

POPcomms supports Harding+ with interactive touchscreen experiences designed to function fully offline once deployed.

This capability allows Harding+ to deliver immersive, branded retail activations across onboard stores — enabling guests to explore product stories, ranges and brand narratives at their own pace.

By removing dependence on connectivity, Harding+ can provide consistent, high-quality digital experiences across its fleet, even in remote locations at sea.

The interactive experiences add a new digital layer to Harding+’s onboard retail environments.

Guests can:

• discover brand stories and product ranges

• engage more deeply with featured brands

• explore content that complements the physical retail space

This encourages longer dwell time, stronger brand recall and more meaningful in-store interactions — helping brands stand out without requiring a transactional experience.

The experiences are highly customisable and designed to be easy to manage, enabling Harding+ teams to adapt content for different brands, ships and retail environments.

Even team members with limited design or technical experience can confidently create and update experiences, supported by intuitive tools and responsive support.

This flexibility allows Harding+ to continually refresh onboard retail experiences and keep them relevant throughout a voyage.