Fashion Retail still dominates the German retail trade with 143 chain stores – that’s number 2 in an international country comparison. However, our inner cities are facing a transformation. In the long term, this picture will change in the centers: more and more shops are closing, leaving empty, unused spaces behind. There is great potential to create new places of longing and interaction possibilities with physical spaces, the focus of which is less on pure product sales and more on services.
Experiences and encounters are the new incentives in retail
Post-Covid, consumer behavior is characterized by a more conscious, social indulgence. Consuming for the sake of consuming is declining, but there is a greater desire to meet to pursue common passions and interests. The following approaches from different brands are intended to inspire and show how better staging in the physical space can improve customer loyalty.
Live and exclusive
As an exclusive Traveling Social Club, Prada’s fashion pop-up has hosted international cities such as Miami, Hong Kong and Moscow, coinciding with global art events. The latest edition ran alongside the recent Frieze Los Angeles art fair and featured an immersive installation by artist Martine Syms. Prada took over the popular restaurant Genghis Cohen for two days. The format is a combination of art installations, hospitality, performances and talks and is therefore a good example of a new, less commercial form of customer loyalty. With the exclusive live events, Prada adopts the concept of “Member Clubs” and aims to solidify the brand’s cultural stance, rather than just promoting direct sales.
Offline and community focused
For the one-year anniversary at TX Huaihai, a youth cultural center in Shanghai, Burberry collaborated with young creative talents to present the “Burberry Generation” exhibition. Curated under the three themes “Reconstructed Garden”, “Variation” and “My Balance”, various artistic forms are represented, including sculptures, photographs as well as virtual and digital art. Launched in November 2020 for the Chinese market, the Burberry Generation project focuses on the pioneering forces of various fields such as music, art, fashion and technology. Over the last year there have been eleven editions of the project, which have resulted in a variety of artworks in collaboration with over 30 content creators.
Public and accessible to all
With its basketball courts for local athletes, Nike shows how public space can be upgraded and revitalized: The legendary, colorful basketball court / Pigalle in Paris’ Rue Duperré was designed by the French design agency Ill Studio together with Stéphane Ashpool as part of the collaboration of his Fashion brand Pigalle designed with Nike and has already undergone five makeovers since the first paint job in 2009 – the latest in 2020 with a graphic block color design to match the Nike Pigalle Converse collection.
In Belgrade late last year, the brand created a contemporary space for local athletes and sports enthusiasts. As part of the Move to Zero campaign, Nike renovated a basketball court at the Block 70 recreation center with 20,000 community-donated sneakers. The park’s existing fitness equipment and public furniture were repaired and repainted to ensure the New Belgrade Leisure Center reflects the rich history of basketball in the region while also becoming a meeting place for local sports enthusiasts.
Together and sustainably
Fashion consumers expect fashion to last, which is why “repair retail”, for example, is currently experiencing an upswing. For example, fashion retailers can integrate repair stations or DIY workshops into their stores in order to convey a more sustainable attitude towards repairing and reusing while at the same time creating incentives to visit. Converse is demonstrating this in Melbourne with its “Renew Labs” initiative, a retail experience that brings together creativity, co-creation, inclusive ideation and the vision of a more sustainable future in the fashion industry. The store acts as a community space and hub that offers creative workshops as well as cleaning and repair services for worn Chucks to spice them up again.
Fashion retail must not be a pure sales channel
When it comes to the question of how our inner cities can find a new shine, the fashion trade is a decisive factor. City centers and stores are mutually dependent on each other – their attractiveness is mutually dependent, since encounters in city centers stimulate retail and vice versa. Service-oriented concepts will gradually replace pure product sales and outdated “Bigger is Better” approaches in the inner city. If fashion retailers succeed in using new approaches to create attractive incentives to visit, by turning the physical space into a place of experience or a community destination, lively areas are guaranteed.
About the author
Mathias Ullrich is Managing Director at LIGANOVA, the innovation leader in the field of brand and retail experiences in the phygital space. Over the past ten years, the industrial engineer has advised clients in the brand retail sector on positioning, growth and digital transformation. At LIGANOVA, he heads the Experience Solutions division and designs retail locations and experience areas for global premium brands from the luxury, sporting goods, automotive, fashion and retail sectors at the interface between people, brands and products.