Flagship as Clubhouse

Urban Outfitters opened Space Ninety 8 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Taking lessons from its sibling Space 15 Twenty in LA (open since 2008), it’s 37,000 square feet of brand clubhouse. It has a restaurant and bar on the roof, a gallery on the lower level and specially curated merchandise on the floors in-between. The distinction is clear, though, that this is not just another Urban Outfitters – this is a license to drive off-road, this is the best version of what Urban Outfitters has to offer and it is a true destination. It has bacon-wrapped matzoh balls, too.

New York is also now home to the newest of Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Markets. Dubbed an emporium (such a shame no one uses that word anymore), the interior is a mixture of art-meets-merchandising. There are art installations literally woven throughout the interior, where the environment becomes this ever-changing home of rotating shop-in-shops exhibiting the curatorial nature of the concept.

I had the opportunity last spring to visit Sao Paolo and I was amazed at the heavy concentration of destination retail I found within the surrounds of the Jardins district. In particular, the area around Rua Oscar Freire is a mecca for brand clubhouses: Havaianas, Natura, Citroen, Melissa and L’Occitaine all have lifestyle-esque, experience-based retail mega-environments. I guess the shame of it all is that I had to make the pilgrimage to Brazil to visit them. I think retailers are discovering that the customer is shopping in all different manners, and those manners for that same customer may even differ with the day of the week.

Add to that challenge the customer expectation that all stores should be fabulous, not just the flagships. Retailers need to figure out how to make each store a mini-brand clubhouse – each the local chapter of the overarching national organization. I know this poses many challenges for the retailer: cost of differentiation, maintenance concerns and consistency of brand presentation, to name just a few. The problem is, as Stuart Weizman said in a recent WWD article, “If you want her to get off the iPad and into the store, you have to create an environment that is different.”

It’s not that I’m advocating retailers go out and hire Zaha Hadid to design their new stores (obviously), but I do believe there is a fine line between the cookie-cutter rollout and the brand flagship as destination. There needs to be some substantial brand manifestation in-between, and I think the in-between includes all the other touch points of engagement that now exist as opportunities for retailers to engage directly with customers. We’ve now moved past ”omni-channel” and are embarking on the next chapter in retail history: the unified retail approach.

The unified retail approach differs from omni-channel in that we’re no longer talking just about online versus brick-and-mortar. Most stores are no longer breaking out sales numbers separately between these two channels with the movement toward order online, pick up in store. Websites are expected to be brand vehicles. Social media is a must for communicating with (and listening to!) your customer base and expanding your point of view. The percentage of mobile transactions continues to climb. Pop-ups and participation in synergistic events expand brand awareness and the customer base. It’s all expected.

The question is how to surprise and delight customers these days when shock and awe are the new benchmark? I suspect there is a large correction coming, where internet and mobile commerce settles into a major part of daily life for just about everyone on the planet, and brick-and-mortar shakes out to its new yet-to-be-determined format. Until then, retailers must do a lot of experimentation, as well as careful examination of all the data it’s becoming privy to, in order to determine what will be the right solution for their brand and what their customers need in the long run. There’s the old saying, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” I suspect the new veShopping is no longer about looking for what you need — it’s about procuring a lifestylersion of that expression will be, “What would you do if failure was OK?” A lot can be learned from failures. With the greatest risks often come the greatest successes.

Kathleen Jordan, AIA, CID, LEED AP, is a principal in Gensler’s New York office, and a leader of its retail practice with over 24 years of experience across the United States and internationally. Jordan has led a broad range of retail design projects as both an outside consultant and as an in-house designer. She has led projects from merchandising and design development all the way through construction documentation and administration, and many of her projects have earned national and international design awards. Contact her at kathleen_jordan@gensler.com.