The ancient city was profoundly shaped by retail trade, particularly through buildings that housed sales and production activities, becoming part of street networks and urban plots. Although shops (tabernae) appear to have been multifunctional spaces for sales, production and storage, they are also characterised by their regular layout, which opens them up to the main thoroughfares. They could either be integrated with other constructed units or form independent complexes with an explicit economic purpose. Architectural models, particularly those observed in the Vesuvian cities or Ostia, for example, seem to have been applied to commercial premises throughout the Roman world, spreading due to the taberna’s modular and standardised shape. Archaeological data from urban contexts in Roman Gaul provides a particularly rich corpus of street-side commercial buildings that can consistently be compared with examples elsewhere in the Roman world. However, a detailed, diachronic study of the commercial landscapes of the Roman colonies of the colonies of Lugdunum and Vienna—which played a well-known role in the long-distance trade networks of the Rhône Valley—has revealed local particularities in the design of commercial buildings, shop layouts and internal fittings. Beyond the application of models, which will also be discussed, what criteria can explain these local choices? To what extent can topography, local architectural traditions or changes within the urban fabric be considered? What impact did these different forms of commercial buildings have on commercial practices, ownership and workplace management? This paper relies on the results of a dissertation completed in 2023 on retail trade in the Rhône Valley between the first century BCE and the third century CE.