Retail Reimagined, Part V

First Place
Conversion – Specialty Store, Sales Area Under 10,000 SQ. FT.
Rockar, Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent, England, U.K.
Submitted by: Dalziel and Pow, London

After more than 20 years in the car-selling business, Simon Dixon, who was recently frustrated by the painful experience of purchasing a vehicle himself, set out to revolutionize automobile retail as most consumers know it. Dixon teamed up with design firm Dalziel and Pow to develop the new brand, Rockar – a digitally integrated auto showroom that aims to give customers complete control over their shopping experience.

Rockar’s framework was built on employing product “experts,” which it calls “Angels,” to guide shoppers, rather than traditional commissioned salespeople; no-haggle pricing, which can be adjusted on a sliding scale according to trade-in value and budget; and the convenient ability to continue shopping trips online.

The store encompasses 42 screens on its perimeter and 12 screens in its center that create the “browsing station” (shown above), where shoppers can view product specs and features, as well as reviews from other customers – much like they’re accustomed to doing with other long-term investment purchases – and within as little as five minutes, leave the store as a new car owner.

Other than devising a game-changing new retail concept, balancing the store’s digital and physical environments was a major task to contend with. “In that format, there is a challenge to avoid it being too screen-noisy,” says Ed Nelson, associate design director, Dalziel and Pow. “You have to tread a thin line when you’re creating content for something like that.” Keeping this in mind, the design team created all custom content for the store that took a light-handed approach with moving graphics, drawing attention to only the most important messages.

“[Experience stores] are a huge trend and this [project] is a big deal in the industry,” said Brazelton. “Dealerships are often awful and this is the opposite of that.”

Read more about the Retail Renovation Competition winners featured in VMSD's September 2015 issue by clicking here, and be sure to check vmsd.com throughout the month of September for parts I-VII of this Renovation Competition coverage.

Retail Reimagined, Part I
Retail Reimagined, Part II
Retail Reimagined, Part III
Retail Reimagined, Part IV