FedEx
The Opportunity
Shoptalk is where retail technology decision-makers go to understand what’s next. For FedEx, it was the right room at the right moment.
After successful activations at NRF and Manifest 2026, FedEx’s goal for Shoptalk Spring wasn’t just to introduce their digital capabilities, but to stake their claim as a leader in the space.
On opening day of the show, the company would launch SameDay® Local — a same-day delivery service designed to help retailers compete with Amazon and Walmart.
SVP of Digital Portfolio Jason Brenner would be making his first significant public appearance in a thought leadership capacity, with a fireside chat and a hosted salon dinner.
The booth needed to serve as home base for all of it. And it needed to be designed, fabricated, and delivered on an accelerated 6-week timeline.
The Challenge
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Translate an evolving brand identity into a physical environment. FedEx's digital transformation was real and substantive. But the brand's physical identity, built over decades around delivery trucks and overnight shipping, still dominated how most people thought about the company.
The exhibit needed to make both truths coexist in a single space in a way that felt intentional rather than contradictory.
- Create a floor presence worthy of a major product launch. With SameDay Local launching on opening day and a senior executive on-site in a thought leadership capacity for the first time, the booth needed to command attention at one of retail tech's most competitive shows and serve as a credible home base for high-stakes conversations.
- Support three distinct engagement modes without bleed. The space needed to accommodate a high-energy interactive truck experience, live product demos of the digital solutions suite, and quiet extended sales conversations.
- Execute at speed without compromising on creativity. The FedEx team made the final decision to exhibit at Shoptalk just six weeks before opening day, leaving a compressed window for design, fabrication, and logistics for a 20×20 custom rental.
- Support three distinct engagement modes without bleed. The space needed to accommodate a high-energy interactive truck experience, live product demos of the digital solutions suite, and quiet extended sales conversations — all within a 20×20 island, simultaneously, without any zone disrupting another.
Our Approach
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Bridge the familiar and the future. The central design insight was that FedEx's brand duality didn't need to be reconciled; it needed to be dramatized.
A true-to-life recreation of the back of a FedEx delivery truck served as the exhibit's anchor. With its hard panel exterior, real working lights, and custom water-jet-cut tires, it’s virtually indistinguishable from the real thing — you’d never guess it was built with beMatrix frames.
Placed against deep purple walls, galaxy-patterned graphics, and a tech-circuit LED floor, the contrast was immediate and intentional: the most familiar object in American logistics, dropped into the visual language of the future.
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Turn the truck into an experience. The truck wasn't just a visual moment, it was an activation. A motion-sensor trigger caused the rear door to animate open as visitors approached, revealing a 90-inch monitor playing FedEx's digital solutions content inside: physical world on the outside, digital world on the inside.
The reveal mechanic stopped floor traffic consistently throughout the show. The truck was also designed as a traveling brand asset, with a custom license plate redesigned for each show location — built to represent FedEx's brand consistently across their event program rather than be discarded after a single use.
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Engineer a 20×20 that functions like three distinct spaces. The final design integrated three fully distinct zones within 400 square feet, with a reception counter at the entrance that routed visitors based on need.
The truck captured attention and drew attendees in.
The central demo spaces hosted live demonstrations of FedEx's digital solutions suite, with dedicated focus on the SameDay Local launch.
A tucked-away lounge in the rear provided a quieter environment for extended sales conversations, shielded from the energy of the demos and truck.
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Design every detail intentionally. The signature orange canopy was engineered at a 45-degree angle using beMatrix framing — a structurally complex achievement for a modular system — and created a bold architectural frame visible from across the floor.
A custom-printed vinyl floor with LED strips routed directly into the substrate traced the graphic pattern in light, with no diffusion cover and no tripping hazard. Face-lit reception desk graphics and real working truck lights completed a space that felt meticulously considered at every level.
The Result
FedEx SameDay Local launched on opening day of Shoptalk to a room full of exactly the retail tech decision-makers they needed to reach — and with a booth that was impossible to walk past.
The truck became one of the most photographed moments on the floor, generating consistent organic engagement throughout the show.
