We’ve spoken a bit about the stores that are closing thanks to COVID and the shift in consumer preferences. You can read more about that here. However, just as some businesses are being hit by COVID others are truely thriving. In that vein they are hopping onto the front foot and thinking about their experience of the future…and even what their future footprint might look like. So here’s a snippet of the retail businesses we think are definitely finding opportunity in the chaos of CV19.

KITH HAWAII FLAGSHIP

Having only opened on Friday 20th of August 2021, many were speculating exactly how the store would look - and the iconic New York based footwear and fashion brand did not disappoint!

Located in the Royal Hawaiian Centre, this 2 storey building is Kith's 7th flagship store to open since its creation back in 2011 by Ronnie Fieg.

Before putting down roots in Hawaii, the brand did its homework, researching the culture and customer - and ultimately fell in love with the community after setting up a pop-up shop in Honolulu in 2019. Its important to highlight that Kith takes pride in the appearance of its stores, making sure it appeals to the local customer from an aesthetic standpoint, as well as a product standpoint - what works in Paris doesn't work in Soho, and what works in Soho doesn't work in Hawaii. No cookie cutters here!

GLOSSIER SEATTLE

On Friday the 20th of August 2021 the beauty and skincare leader, Glossier, opened its doors in Capital Hill, Seattle, with a store the media is calling "The Algorithm Brought to Life".⁠⁠

Sitting squarely in the centre of the glorious store is a fake rock, adorned in life-like moss and colourful mushrooms. In addition to the quirky centrepiece is the signature use of Millennial pink subway tiles, ceiling light boxes with flattering PNW-inspired grey light and lichen-like green seating pads aka the boyfriend/partner waiting area.⁠⁠

⁠⁠Whilst the visuals of this store play a huge role in the customers experience, so does the seemingly simple audio experience. In addition to their Glossier approved + region-specific playlist, bird and nature sounds can be heard.⁠⁠

⁠⁠This concept behind this store is community, and given how clever Glossier truly is, they have meshed Seattle's tech-forwardness in conjunction with its natural environmental beauty and created a store that the locals will fall in love with.⁠⁠

APPLE TOWER THEATRE

In late June, 2021, after years of renovation, Apple has opened the doors on its latest retail offering in downtown LA. This historic building has been completely restored in all its glory and given new purpose.⁠⁠
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After sitting vacant for many years, the retail giant has struck a perfect balance of technology meets historic landmark - respecting the building’s history and intricate details, whilst infusing its own brand and seamless technology to tell the Apple story throughout.⁠⁠

ALLURE STORE BY ALLURE MAGAZINE

For the first time in the magazine's 30-year history, they have opened an Allure Store — an IRL shopping experience that combines the trusted expertise of Allure's editors and beauty-pro contributors with an interactive, 360-degree shopping space. ⁠⁠

This store is a curated selection of all the "it" beauty and skincare products that its readers, as well as famous makeup artists and its beauty editors recommend. The same products found in store, can also be purchased through their online store.⁠⁠ Located on 191 Lafayette Street in downtown New York City, the store’s initial retail offering includes more than 280 different products from 150 different brands – each product having been featured in Allure before and, therefore, being handpicked by the magazine’s very own beauty experts. Basically, everything on display will be tried-and-true hair, makeup, and skin care favourites. ⁠⁠

ON NYC FLAGSHIP

Created with the customer in mind, this store takes shoppers on a personalised and interactive journey through their brand’s philosophy and collection. On NYC is “Technology-driven, human-centred”.

Not only is this store a place to explore products and technology, it will also serve as a “seasonal hub” for athletes and running clubs to eventually come together safely to see new product from On.

On strives to help customers find their perfect shoes instantly; hidden gait-cycle analysis technology finds the best shoes for your unique running style instantly. It compares key running attributes with a database of more than 52,000 runs and every shoe On make.It combines this data with a custom-built invisible foot scanner to find your perfect size, accurate to within 1.25mm…Um WOW?!⁠

On top of great technology, On have thought through the entire customer journey, even allowing them the freedom of having their new shoes delivered directly home via Dropship.⁠

ALLKINDS

Labelled the kids self-care specialist, Allkinds is a fun and energetic brand selling bath, body, hair & skin products formulated especially for kids from clean ingredients.⁠⁠

First off, we LOVE that these guys take a strong stance when it comes to being sustainable and their in-store partnership with our friends, TerraCycle, is such a great way to increase foot traffic whilst doing good for our planet. TerraCycle offer an in-store recycling program + recycling bins for empty product drop-offs. ⁠⁠

Its hard not to mentioned the beautiful rainbow colour palette used throughout the store. The use of colour blocking creates visual appeal for all ages.⁠⁠

To learn more about TerraCycle, have a listen to their CEO, Tom Szaky, on our podcast.

HOUSE OF RITUALS

Taking the idea of a retail experience to the max, Rituals has created a 4-storey haven for the customer - beauty + wellness + restaurant in Amsterdam. ⁠⁠ The 1,500 sqm experience store offers a host of new services and far more products than the average Rituals store - as many as 600! Shoppers can personalise gifts, plus there is a luxury perfume bar, exclusive collections of scented sticks, scented candles and luxury textiles for both bed and bath. Rituals is using their store as a means to test new products to see how the customer responds.⁠⁠

A wellness centre is due to open on the top two floors of the building next year, plus the store also houses an Asian-inspired restaurant ,Rouhi, which aims to stimulate the senses with surprising flavours, textures and fragrances.⁠⁠

In the same manner that the retailer is testing products through the creation of the store, the store itself is a test and if successful, Rituals will rollout similar concepts in other major cities.⁠⁠

GLOSSIER POP-UP SEATTLE

Studio Lily Kwong, who’s aim is “Reconnecting People to Nature”, have partnered up with Glossier to do just that. The Seattle pop-up is out of this world - all 102 sqm have been filled with mossy green plant covered mounds partnered perfectly with splashes of purple & pink in a nod to Glossier’s own branding and its understanding of the natural local environment.⁠

Kendall Latham, Glossier’s senior environmental designer, says that the design was inspired by speaking to locals from the area and finding out their love for nature was a unifying theme within the community. “We wanted to capture the mood of the surrounding landscape and represent the juxtaposition of nature and technology in the city,” he says. This type of immersion into the community creates a customer experience that’s truly next level. They’ve taken the time not just understand what matters to the customers, but also the community and its surrounding flora and fauna.⁠

Everything, down to the mist covered windows and perfectly placed product, just proves why Glossier are the leaders in customer experience and brand loyalty.⁠

SUBTYPE

Situated in Sydney's second oldest Heritage site on George Street, is @subtypestore's newest addition, designed by none other than @noise.noise.noise.studio⁠
We love the blatant contrast between the bold brass curves and the heritage exposed brick. It's worth noting, all walls, fixtures and overlay are freestanding to comply with the strict regulations. ⁠
At first glance, the design could be mistaken for simple, but upon review you notice the intricate details that have made this store unique - the bold use of colour, well positioned lighting, the gold chained tree trunks serving as both sculpturally entertaining and also so important in grounding the customers view point back to the floor...to the shoes, if you will.⁠

STYLERUNNER ARMIDALE

“We didn’t want to create another retail store of white walls and timber floors. We weren’t afraid to take some risks with this concept, and Blair Cooper of Noise Noise Noise lived up to the challenge, delivering a standout space that we believe our customers and community will love exploring and immersing themselves in”, says Stylerunner Co-Founder and Brand Director, Julie Stevanja, of the very first Bricks & Mortar creation for the brand.⁠

Personally, we love that someone is taking the importance of customer experience so seriously in the design and creation of their store. The winning combination of the Insta-Worthy change rooms (with a “press for help” button, next to a “press for hydration” button, where shoppers receive their own pastel Stylerunner branded aluminium can of H20) with their mood enhancing dimmer switches for custom lighting + the use of delicious mint green shelving & furniture used to draw the eye to the centre of the store are just perfect. We might actually get excited about shopping in-store again?!⁠

We can’t wait to see what Julie and the Stylerunner team have up their extremely sophisticated PE Nation jumper sleeves for NSW! *cough* come to Manly *cough*⁠

Designed by @noise.noise.noise.studio

To learn more about Stylerunner, listen to our conversation with GM, Ryan Edelmuth here.

BROWNS / FARFETCH

After having to delay this project a little bit - we remember hearing about this when the lovely people at Browns took us around their Shoreditch store in January 2020 - the Browns/ Farfetch Mayfair store is now open. Why this store is such news is that in this store customers can experience Farfetch’s ‘Store of the Future’ technology in action. That said don’t get this store wrong it’s not about tech for tech’s sake or wanting the customer to get in and our as quick as possible. Instead it reminds us of Matches Fashion’s store 5 Carlos Place…also in Mayfair. Customers can use their Farfetch app to book appointments, search products and add to wishlist as well as use their connected mirrors.

To quote found of Farfetch Founder + Chief Executive, José Neves:

“Browns has always been an innovative retailer and Farfetch has worked to keep this spirit alive and pioneer new ways of engaging customers both online and offline…[Our ambition is for] Browns to remain at the forefront of retailing… by continuing to pioneer innovative ways to engage the customer but also to continue to champion new brands and designers, which it is famous for.”

ULTA BEAUTY

The US’ largest beauty retailer with over 1,196 stores and a market cap of US$17.19B. Now we have to preface this by saying that beauty continues to go on the up and up. So this category has been incredibly buoyant. That said in a time when you could arguable just stop and focus on the basics, Ulta has taken two big steps in their store experience (which if you’re interested you can learn more about on our Podcast with Laura Beres - Senior Director of Strategic Portfolio Delivery - click here to listen). The first is rolling out their store in store in 100 Target locations; and the second is opening up a new NYC store. Both of which are strategic moves to grow the brand into new audiences and continue to build on it’s leaderships position.

HERMES

The ultra luxury goods house Hermes opened a new store in Tokyo. This is the first freestanding Hermes store in Tokyo since they opened their eponymous Ginza store in 2001. Their new store in Omotesando is Hermes through and through. This is something we truely admire, when a brand understands that the exterior of a store isn’t about POS (literally couldn’t actually imagine Hermes doing POS) but rather it’s an extension of the brand. It can be itself something to photograph or be admired by passer byes (FYI Prada’s famed  Herzog and de Meuron store is closeby - so the standard is very very high). This store’s interior was designed by the iconic John Pawson.

ALCHEMY

Another area experiencing huge growth are cannabis dispensaries. We love the approach to aesthetics, as retailers in this category look to challenge the notion that ganja is just for stoners. In the midst of Covid, Canadian Cannabis retailer Alchemy opened this epic flagship in downtown Toronto. This is really a statement in rethinking the category, and elevating it to a new audience. Obviously, given the issues around retail, this store also offers curb side pick-up. What more could you want.

ASDA SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPT

Ok so this was opening in late 2020, but still worth a mention and that is Asda’s sustainability concept store in Middleton. This is a supermarket encouraging customers to ditch the packaging and bring their own to fill up. It’s like Walmart took the concept of a co-op and made it mainstream - in fact part of this is making sure that the customer doesn’t pay more for going green. A core tenant of successful sustainable retail to have that sweet spot between business savings and earth savings . This store has: