Recently, Toronto-based brand, Nobis, opened their first North American store on trendy Queen St. West in Toronto. In fact, for the hot outerwear brand that sells primarily through wholesale, it is their only branded store, outside of a stand-alone in the Marais area of Paris. Yet, what could have been and should have been an ultimate flagship, one that was unique and proprietary to Nobis and launch them as a bona fide retailer, fails to deliver! The power of a flagship Regardless of the sector, successful retailers know that their retail locations need to be anything but ordinary. And that[…]
MAP Provincetown: Seasonal retail done right
As I touched on in my last blog, seasonal retail, especially when aimed at affluent urban vacationers, can and should provide a more sophisticated shopping experience than the run-of-the-mill. While on vacation, style-savvy LGBT urban dwellers as well as their straight counterparts, are perfectly primed for indulgent shopping and self-gifting. In the gay mecca of Provincetown, MAP, offers a uniquely curated collection of product in a sublimely simple and sophisticated shopping experience completely on target with the demographic. In a thriving summer resort town where seasonal retail is the norm, taking a curated approach to retail offering isn’t particularly new;[…]
No gold for Pan Am Games Superstore
While Toronto seems to have pulled off the Pan Am Games without any major glitches, the official retail efforts have been nothing but disappointing. And as I suspected, even the so-called Pan Am Games Superstore at Nathan Phillips Square failed to deliver anything more than a rudimentary retail experience. Theoretically well-positioned at Nathan Phillips Square, home to Pan Am Games concerts and the immensely popular giant Toronto sign, the Pan Am Games Superstore proved to be nothing more than a larger version of the out-of-the-box pop-up shop at Toronto Eaton Centre. Lacking completely in personality and customer experience, the superstore’s[…]
Pan Am Superstore: Another missed opportunity?
After my last post regarding Toronto’s Pan Am Shop at Toronto Eaton Centre, I held out little hope for the seamless integration of a viable and memorable retail experience into the coming Pan Am Games. However, last weekend my hopes were buoyed, as quite by chance passing by Nathan Phillips Square, I spotted a large tent emblazoned with a sign, “Pan Am Superstore”. Hoping to stand corrected regarding my disappointment with Toronto’s Pan Am Games retail effort thus far, with great anticipation, I made my way over to the Pan Am Superstore this week. Even though a quick Google search[…]
Toronto’s Pan Am shop: Event retailing that falls short
In less than 5 weeks and after years of preparation, the long-awaited Pan Am Games will begin, but sadly Toronto has missed a huge opportunity to leverage event retailing. In an era when product simply doesn’t sell itself and experiences reign supreme, successful retailers across sectors have been ramping up their efforts, like never before, to engage customers. Yet, Toronto’s Pan Am shop at the Eaton Centre disappoints. Event retailing Event retailing, more than a peripheral courtesy, is a very real revenue stream, directly and indirectly. Like off-site team shops, event linked retail is more than an opportunity to dabble[…]
5 Reasons for art in retail
Some retailers have become curators and patrons of the arts, highlighting local artists and emerging artists or even internationally renowned artists within their retail locations. Far from a fleeting trend, leading-edge retailers across the globe have embraced the concept of art in retail. On an international level, Selfridges in the UK has a long history of hosting exhibitions and commissioning professional and amateur artists to create sculptural installations and windows displays; Reiss, the fashion retailer, has collaborated with artists for a travelling exhibit in their locations in the Middle East; Anthropologie often interjects playful rotating installations into their stores, and[…]
Gender-Neutral Retail: A new retail genre?
For the past two decades there has been much focus on uncovering the differences between male and female shoppers. Yet, while researchers and neuroscientists have been unlocking the secret desires and needs of the genders and retailers have been feverishly adapting their approaches to reach their target markets, shoppers who have not fit neatly into narrow gender profiles have been overlooked. To target those customers, has the time come for other options – perhaps gender-neutral retail options? Catering to the sexes For retail designers and retailers, the fact that men and women simply think and shop differently is common[…]
Apple’s “Start something new” embraces core customer across channels
Just as 2014 came to a close Apple launched their latest campaign, “Start something new”. Not only is it a departure from their typical approach, focusing instead on what can be done with their products rather than on the products themselves, but it seamlessly carries the message across online and in-store channels. And the concept itself brilliantly exemplifies the brand virtues, to customers, particularly leading-edge hard-core Apple customers. “Start something new” Launched initially in Japan in late December, then across other international markets in early January including Canada and the U.S., the campaign features a curated collection of commissioned[…]
New Anthropologie store: From neglected church to lifestyle temple
Just before Christmas, a new Anthropologie store opened – another outpost in Toronto, for the popular American retailer of clothing and housewares. The location: a 19th century church in the heart of Queen St. West that has been respectfully renovated and converted into a cathedral of fashion – or perhaps more accurately a lifestyle temple. Go west Queen St. West The location in itself, is one on the leading edge of the gradual westward creep of national and international retail chains, along Queen St. West. Over the past two decades, gentrification has been changing the face of retail along[…]
Best products at IIDEX for retail applications
Typically exhibitors at the IIDEX Canada industry trade show, which took place last week, are geared towards commercial sectors other than retail; but that doesn’t mean that the show is short of interesting new products suited to retail applications. Here are 3 of the best from this year’s show: 1. Luminous Textile with Kvadrat Soft Cells [Philips] This intriguing product, awarded Bronze Innovation Award in the category of Innovative Lighting, is a Luminous Textile fabric panel lit with integrated LEDs. It’s a completely customizable modular product available in a variety of colours and ready for whatever content you wish[…]