Selfridges - The shop of everything

What can the shop that has everything offer to customers this season but The Museum of Everything.

Selfridges Oxford Street kicks off a two-month exhibition created by The Museum of Everything in its Ultralounge in the store’s basement tomorrow. To mark the occasion it has cleared all of its Oxford Street windows of stock, replacing this with enlarged images and cutouts taken from the show. This is the first time that the deparment store has chosen not to show any product in its Oxford Street windows and was the subject of considerable debate, according to a spokeswoman.

The Museum of Everything will run in Selfridges until the end of October and shoppers wishing to buy something from the exhibition will be able to purchase limited edition prints amd t-shirts taken from the show in the store’s Wonder Room.







John Ryan For Retail Week

Selling the Sales

Sales. An integral part in every retailers calendar, so why so often do they become an excuse for some stores to leave their windows baron and their merchandise shabby?

The word SALE plastered across a window no longer has the same impact as it once did, largely because at least half a dozen retailers will be on sale at any one time in the year. So that sense of urgency, that excitement of an 'event' has less impact. That coupled with the rise of online shopping where Australians have become wise to the fact they can buy for less over the internet has again diluted the impact of our traditional sale.

However, markdowns are a fact of retail life and getting ‘clean’ in preparation for new stock is as much part of the calendar as anything else. The way retailers approach the matter of clearance, however, varies widely, and for some – think Harrods – it is a highly marketable event just like any other promotion. And it's only once a year so still has that prestige status.

So what's the best way to present a mark-down sale? How can we bring innovation to our windows and visual merchandising? Here are just a few examples of how some stores skin that cat:

Desigual
Desigual, parades a mass of Sale red T-shirts as overhead banners.

Also using giant T-shirts in the windows bearing an “I heart 50% off” slogan – in keeping with the brand’s contemporary feel.

A high-impact LED screen, bearing the -50% promotion as well as showcasing markdowns adds energy to the fascia, again making it more noticeable than those of neighbouring stores.




Radley UK
Radley are a UK bag retailer. An extension of this means that when it comes to Sale time it’s an idea to put giant Sale shopping bags in the window – coloured red, naturally.

This is an incredibly simple and low-cost way of getting the message out there and, when coupled with a relatively discreet decal on the window stating ‘Up to 60% off’, it was little surprise it gets noticed.




Replay
Italian denim brand Replay can normally be relied on to come up with something interesting at Sale time and this window scheme confirms that it understands how to create a stir.

Long, unfurled till rolls are suspended from wooden spools with the word SALE printed in red between the numbers of imaginary items that have been purchased.

This is one of the more original ways of telling shoppers that there are bargains at that store, although whether shoppers will find this sufficiently compelling to step inside or whether it proves to be merely an interesting arty distraction is a moot point.




Uniqlo
What can only be called a Sale tower of power describes what has been done by Uniqlo to grab the gaze of passing shoppers. The massively high windows either side of the entrance are divided into a series of dark rooms with nothing in them other than a male mannequin, a female mannequin and a sale banner, the latter composed in a very traditional manner.




Suit Supply
This is a modest sale treatment, but is virtually unmissable. Suit Supply has taken a fairly low profile clothing category and turned in into a mass-market fashion event. The somewhat retro 1950s signage that it has placed at the bottom of its window keeps faith with its quirky visual merchandising approach.

Summer in Manchester

As Australia heads into winter, retailers and their ad agencies are undoubtably working on the next summer campaign and dare I say it, planning Christmas. A good time therefore to look to our northern hemisphere comrades and take a look at some of the UK's summer campaigns in Manchester.

Primark, Market Street


On a grey day in the heart of Manchester, Primark shone out as the retailer banking everything on summer. Each of its many windows had been themed to encourage Costa del Ship Canal shoppers that now would be the right time to make a budget seasonal purchase.

Messages such as ‘10 of the best sandals’, ‘Fits me to a T’ and ‘Beautiful on the beach’ seemed to be working in spite of the weather and there was nothing complex about the window displays that had been installed. Generally, this was nothing more than torsos on poles to which shorts, short-sleeve shirts and crop tops had been applied.


It was doing the trick, however, and, as usual, the area beyond the main entrance was filled with people clutching multiple Primark bags.

Ted Baker, The Trafford Centre


The thing many shoppers like about Ted Baker is its windows, which usually combine wit with a seasonal theme. The store in The Trafford Centre proved no exception, with a display featuring 3D animated, cartoon-style bees buzzing around, backed by the message ‘Let’s get ready to bumble’.

Whatever your thoughts on the quality of the pun, there was no denying that shoppers were stopping to inspect what had been done and the usual artfully contrived mish-mash of store design tropes awaited those who ventured inside.


This, along with Primark, was among the most obviously summer-themed stores in Manchester and, given the complexity of what has been done in Ted Baker, it seems reasonable to suppose that this scheme will remain in place for much of the summer.

Selfridges, Exchange Square and The Trafford Centre


Selfridges’ two Mancunian outposts are warning shoppers about the dangers of overfishing at the moment – just like the London store, where the campaign was launched by Prince Charles last week. In the two stores, ‘Project Ocean’ consists for the most part of cardboard cut-out fish, accompanied by messages suspended from the ceiling.

It is hard to miss the initiative. In The Trafford Centre, for instance, the fishes are positioned at the non-mall entrance and upstairs where the store provides ingress to the mall’s upper level.

But it feels curious in light of the fact that, as well as the fishes that can be viewed in the food halls, they have also been positioned above sundry garment areas at the top of escalators. Presumably, the notion is that even if a visit to the food hall is not on the cards, the visitor will still be made aware of what is happening in our oceans.


Project Ocean involves Selfridges teaming up with more than 20 environmental and conservation groups and runs until June 12.

Jack Wills, King Street


Given university outfitters Jack Wills’ penchant for quaint cathedral cities that have an ancient institution attached, you might not have expected to find a branch in Manchester. That said, this store is located just off St Ann’s Square in the historic heart of the city.

A strapline across the lower part of one of the windows reads ‘Summer term now in stock’ – all well and good and exactly the sort of messaging you would expect of a store premised on the notion of being governed by the vagaries of our better higher education establishments. Yet the visual merchandising team seemed to have overlooked the fact that, when visiting, the royal wedding had taken place two weeks before.

This meant that a crown and the words ‘Wills & Kate: Get your exclusive mug in store’, were still on view. Whether the choice to leave this in the window was laziness, or the effect of having bought a few too many exclusive mugs, was anybody’s guess.

The Manchester Store, The Trafford Centre


You have to admire this shop if only for the way that it pokes fun at the nearby Apple Store with a distinctly white, minimalist fit-out and T-shirts that include a black number with a plain white font bearing the legend: ‘iManc’. You could be forgiven for thinking that the bulk of the shoppers walking around The Trafford Centre might actually be from Manchester and therefore having a store dedicated to the city in which they live might spell tough trading.


That said the sense of civic pride plays second fiddle to a feeling that here is a store that offers a bit of fun that happens to be about the city. It has been in this unit for a little over a year and even the shop assistant admitted to having purchased an ‘iManc’ T-shirt. Surprisingly, it’s actually quite hard to walk past this one without taking at least a look through the door. A white ceiling raft, backed by a plain black ceiling void and plain wood flooring equates to souvenirs for the design-conscious. Good for summer stock too.

John Ryan for Retail Week

Holograms in retail

What once started as Sci-fi make believe in Star Wars movies has now become a main stream advertising medium. Holograms are popping up everywhere from retail store windows to fashion shows and even POS, causing quite a stir. In the last few years I've seen holographic ladies getting changed in store windows after hours to live models interacting with a realtime hologram shapes.

However they're still largely being used for their novelty value without any real relevance to the brand (happy to be proven wrong here if anyone has any examples).

Here are just a few examples from an Australian company called Cheoptics Holograms:

Ecco footwear, Copenhagen airport

ECCO Cheoptics Model 300 from viZoo on Vimeo.

Lexus window display

Lexus Free Format from viZoo on Vimeo.

Chanel, Paris

Exclusive custom install in Paris from viZoo on Vimeo.

Manhatten Mecca

Over the last 12 months, Times Square in the heart of Manhattan has consolidated its position as the destination in New York for casual American fashion, but there are new stores right across the Big Apple

The phrase a ‘New York minute’ is usually taken to mean that time is compressed in the Big Apple when compared with other metropolises.

And things do seem to move a little faster here than in most other locations. But there is a sense of the permanent about much of the city’s retail offer. Landmarks abound, whether it’s Macy’s (still billed as the world’s largest department store), Bloomingdale’s or even the more recent Apple store at the southern tip of Central Park. It’s hard to escape the feeling that retailers who set up shop here are in for the long game.

A surprise therefore to find that in Times Square, the heart of Manhattan, much has changed during the last year. This is now the home of the megastore and over the last year Los Angeles-headquartered fashion outfit Forever 21 has opened the largest apparel store in Manhattan, while next door, Disney has opened a flagship that leaves what is on view in Europe somewhat in the shade. And to cap things, local talent Aéropostale, a national chain that operates from New York, has taken a site with a long sweeping frontage. The three newcomers join American Eagle, in creating what must be one of the most flashy retail locations on the planet - a destination that features astoundingly large screens on which ever-changing content makes it difficult to work out where to look.

There are, of course, other places to get a fresh retail perspective on New York. Uptown, in East Harlem, Target has opened its first Manhattan store, while the Brit invasion that has seen Topshop, All Saints (mobbed last Saturday), Ted Baker and Superdry setting up store in SoHo over the last two years has continued with the arrival of a Dr Martens shop in the same downtown neighbourhood.

There have also been a fair number of smaller, branded, shops that have taken the plunge, ranging from fashion, courtesy of designer Marc Jacobs with a Bookmarc store, to girl-friendly bike shop Adeline Adeline in the city’s modish Tribeca district.

Back to Times Square and the vast crowds of local and out-of-town shoppers attest to the fact that for a significant number this is the current retail destination of choice.

Disney


The largest Disney store in the US opened in November with two floors and about 12,000 sq ft of selling space. The stats are noteworthy in their own right. The six letters forming the word Disney above the door weigh a little over 2,000lbs and the 65 ft-high digital screen above this is “the highest resolution screen on Times Square”, according to Disney spokeswoman Shawn Turner. This means that clips of everything from the Lion King to Toy Story can be shown in almost cinematic quality.

Inside, the relatively modestly sized ground floor is a showcase for plush toys and New York-themed Disney products - which form about 10% of the offer in this store. Head upstairs and if you’ve been to one of the larger Disney stores around Europe of late, there will be much that seems familiar: just bigger. This floor has high walls and where it would have been easy to leave the area above the perimeter shelving blank, a frieze with silhouettes of Disney characters cheek-by-jowl with familiar New York skyline icons ensures that the shopper’s eye will not be allowed to rest easy for a moment.

At the back of the floor is a 20 ft-high castle. This is only about 6 ft high in Madrid and contains magic mirrors that allow shoppers to wave a ‘magic’ (RFID) wand in front of them and conjure up short clips from Disney cartoons. The effect is immersive and even if you don’t care for Disney, you will want to have a look around.

Forever 21


The largest apparel store in Manhattan goes a long way towards disguising the fact that the products on its four floors (a large ground floor, a basement, a sub basement and a sub sub basement) are inexpensive. This store is about making cheap look upscale. It does this by creating interior vistas that remind you of other stores, although it may be hard to place them. There is, for instance, an area on one of the lower floors where brightly coloured merchandise is displayed on walls where the surface has been covered with wallpaper that takes the form of a thin black on white grid. A cynic might perhaps be inclined to remark that it looks more than a little like American Apparel. Or perhaps you might feel that the bookcase-style fixturing in another part of the store is reminiscent of Polo Ralph Lauren. And there are Topshop references almost everywhere.

Adeline Adeline


Finally, a store that aims to provide a non-threatening environment for female cyclists or women who might like to try it out. With a very simple shopfit and stock that is about top-end wicker basket cycling, there is a make-do-and-mend ambience about the enterprise.

It is also staffed by women instead of the dispatch rider manqué more normally found in an independent bike store. By virtue of its position, in the lower part of lower Manhattan, it is clearly also a destination as this is a store that you would not happen upon by accident. Like all the others visited, it opened in 2010.

See full article at Retail Week