Showfields Founder Set Out to Create the World’s Most Interesting Store

Tal Zvi Nathanel

Where were the Showfields roots planted?
In Tel Aviv, where I was born. My father was a diamond jeweler and my mother was a window dresser, so I grew up in a world of art and commerce. Our home valued design.

And that led to your retail venture?
[Laughs] Well, not right away. My first business, right out of the Israeli Army, was a social media company for visitors and tourists coming to Israel, which evolved into an events production company.

What did you learn?
I learned how to think about consumers’ experiences. At a concert, no matter how good the show, one bad thing can ruin everything – like whether the restrooms are clean.

How did all this get you to New York?
I next had a tech company offering a digital wallet to streamline restaurant bill-paying. But Israel is a limited market. We needed to expand. In Israel, everyone’s second language is English. So our choices were London or New York. My partner was from London, so I took New York.

The city that never sleeps.
Except in retail. The best New York retail is only for the privileged few, and the difference between luxury retail and mass retail keeps getting wider. And most mass retailing is just ordinary. Today’s younger consumers want more options.

📷: Courtesy of Showfields

The Sidewalks of New York

Any surprises along the way?
“When I was young, my mother traveled all over the world and brought back pictures of window displays and beautiful storefronts – Selfridges, Bon Marché. I only knew what I saw, of course, but the magic of retail design inspired me. It turns out, of course, that she did all this traveling only at Christmas. So I was sure the world looked like the holiday stores of Saks Fifth Avenue or Harrod’s all the time.

“When I moved to New York 20 years later, I was sure I’d see this beautiful array of windows and displays everywhere. It was mostly the opposite – dull, boring, monotonous. This disappointment is what led to the founding of Showfields.”

And thus spoke Showfields?
My partner, Amir Zwicel, and I wanted to create a store that is built for today’s customers and for tomorrow’s brands.

How does the contract with the brands work?
We establish spaces in the best retail neighborhoods – SoHo, South Beach, Century City – design them to be fabulous, and invite 100 brands every six months for a retail campaign that we design and build for them. They only have to show up with merchandise and marketing materials.

Every bit of sales revenue goes to the brand. We bring the customers and optimize what they expect and want and like and enjoy. We want to make sure all brands have a positive experience, but our revenue comes from the campaign fees, so we can concentrate on customer needs.

Have you succeeded?
If you’re in front of a computer, Google “The most interesting store in the world.” [Editor’s note: If you’re not in front of a computer, the answer is Showfields.]