Retail is undergoing a quiet but significant transformation. Will we consume more or less? Regardless of your standpoint, consumerism is challenged. See for instance here.
Against this backdrop, I’ve spent the past year exploring innovative and emerging retail concepts—some of them bold, others very disruptive. A visit to Shanghai last year revealed a retail landscape is really changing. You can read that report here.
This autumn, I’ll be hosting a series of seminars examining what’s next for retail. But before that, I spent a few days in London to see where the cutting edge might currently lie. The UK capital remains a fertile ground for inventive retail thinking. A few years back I went to a high-concept fashion store that turned into a traditional pub, and you of course have the disruptive concept of Dover Street Market here.
On this trip, I visited IKEA’s new concept store, Charlotte Tilbury’s latest beauty parlour, and the intriguingly named Supermarket of Dreams—a new grocery model. Here are my findings.
IKEA
IKEA’s new flagship store on Oxford street. A few official highlights. They want to focus on locality and just at the entrance they have a curated space with three sections. Here they have three different kinds of Londoners choose their favourites. This is making IKEA local. Secondly, they have a fairly big area for circularity. And lastly a tech-driven application. Draw your own jungle animal, scan it and have it sent to a wallpaper. Cute.
What IKEA managed to do, was to bring local stories to a big, global brand. And add new innovative tech solutions.
Charlotte Tilbury
Beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury have a pretty new concept store at Convent Garden. On two floors they sell products and also services. It’s like a fun house of things to explore. There is even a kiosk where you can call and talk to Charlotte Tilbury directly. No, of course it is a recorded message, but you get to hear her voice.
What Charlotte Tilbury managed to do here was to enlarge the beauty experience. Basically building a whole new beauty universe. Also tap into some fun trends like nostalgia and retro (the landline phone).
Supermarket of Dreams
A third retail example is Supermarket of Dreams. It opened in 2020 as a result of the corona pandemic. It’s a grocery store that has become lifestyle. You enter and are met with a semi-loud, semi-fast playlist. More disco than muzac.
It is a fairly small store but plenty of stuff. Lots of fruits and vegetables to choose from. And of course local suppliers of various things to eat.
At the back end of the store was a section where 6-8 chefs were making various kinds of food, like sandwiches. Everything made visiably and locally.
Apparently this place turns into a restaurant and a nightclub at night.
Selfridges
Selfridges is always pushing boundaries of what innovative retail can be. But this time… I was a bit disappointed. I am not sure where it all went wrong. Perhaps they forgot to involve staff?
The concept for this summer was concerts and music. That meant they had dance sessions in elevators, live music, small shops with merch from interesting artists etc. The even asked a cool music store (Rough Trade) to curate a vinyl shop. It could have been so good.
I of course went to see where they had the elevators with dance sessions – but noone knew. The staff with the Rough Trade shop looked bored. Even the merch with concert t-shirts felt a bit off. Now when you can buy a Metallica or Iron Maiden t-shirt at H&M or Primark – why go to Selfridges? It was evident that something was missing.
Other details
A short overview of other things I saw. Retro is huge. Apparently the young generation is obsessed with technology from before their time. So landline phones… We saw it above at Charlotte Tilbury and here at fashion brand Golf.
Two years ago Marc Jacobs opened a small space in Soho under the name Heaven by Marc Jacobs and you find all sorts of fashion here. But I saw how they communicated with these nostalgic times.
Wall calendar from 1998
Plush toys with GameBoys.
An element of surprise seems to be needed. US brand Glossier had a beautiful store. All the right things.
But what stood out was the merch. Here a peppermill with the name of the beauty brand. Why on a peppermill?
Communications are key. Here at a fashion store in Shoreditch. See the sign “Portraits of our community” and they are all dogs.
Power house M&M had an interesting feature. Down in the basement you could make a print on your candy buttons. Super engaging. M&M is huge, but doing this makes me feel closer to the brand. I get to engage.
Disappointments…
But London is also a lot of disappointments. Mainly because a lot of things are only pop up and short term. Did you hear about the repair robot that Nike had? Only a pop up. Just above is Aesop. They made their store into a bookshop. You could refuel your mind instead of just cream it… Only a pop up.
But still
But still. London is good. Always. And I got to see ABBA finally. That is of course also a whole different discussion on retail. But I cried, laughed and sang. I was happy.