Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen Powered by Tencent Technology.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen Powered by Tencent Technology.

📅08 Dicembre 2020, 15:20
TESTO ITALIANO

Burberry opened its luxury’s first social retail store in China’s technology hub Shenzhen, blending the physical and social worlds in a digitally immersive retail experience, a store of tomorrow for today.

Powered by Tencent Technology, the store, opened in the new Shenzhen Bay MixC, is a space of exploration, designed to inspire and entertain luxury customers, where they can interact with the brand and product in new and exciting ways, in person and on social media.

The concept

The concept, which is the first step in an exclusive partnership with Tencent, takes interactions from social media and brings them into a physical retail environment. Through a dedicated WeChat mini program, customers can unlock exclusive content and personalised experiences and share them with their communities.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

The store is made up of a series of spaces for customers to explore. Each has its own concept and personality and offers a unique interactive experience. Drawing upon Burberry’s rich heritage, the store also celebrates the house codes as reinterpreted by Riccardo Tisci, including the Trench Coat, the Thomas Burberry Monogram, Nature and the Burberry Animal Kingdom.

Thomas Burberry was an inventor and a dreamer. The new social retail store reflects Burberry’s pioneering history of firsts and ambition to continue to push boundaries through innovation and creativity. It is a unique space to test and learn, and to trial innovation that can be expanded to the rest of the Burberry network in China.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

The store

The new store features fixtures and plinths constructed in a variety of materials and textures, from plywood to mirror and high-gloss finishes. The store unveils a colour palette of beige, pistachio, pink and blue, as well as references to the Thomas Burberry Monogram and the fawn print. The 539 sqm/5800 sqft store features 10 rooms and offers a truly interactive experience.

Interactive Store Window

Upon entering the store, customers encounter an interactive window, where they discover the first digital experience. A living sculpture, inspired by the mirrored runway from the Burberry Autumn/ Winter 2020 runway show Memories, the window reflects the viewer’s shape and responds to body movement, creating a unique moment that can be captured and shared with friends. The window evolves through the seasons to reflect the latest collections and house codes.

The Trench Experience

As a celebration of the signature Burberry trench coat, the Trench Experience is an exclusive space that customers can unlock as they build their social currency. A homage to Thomas’s Burberry’s vision to create a breathable weatherproof fabric to protect against the elements, the room is designed as a digitally immersive journey through nature, bringing Burberry’s heritage of exploration to life and creating unique and personal content for the customer to share on social media.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

QR Codes

Customers can find Burberry’s latest collections, seasonal products and discover exclusive pieces only available to buy in the Shenzhen store. Each category has its own dedicated area and all products are labelled with QR codes that connect to digital screens, further enhancing the in-store experience. Scanning the QR code unlocks additional content and product storytelling within the mini program and contributes towards building social currency. This is the first Burberry store to include scannable QR codes on product swing tags, adding a digital layer of discovery..

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

Fitting Rooms

The store houses three fittings rooms, each with its own unique creative concept, drawing on Burberry’s house codes: the Burberry Animal Kingdom, Reflections and the Thomas Burberry Monogram. The fitting rooms are designed to celebrate the experience of trying on Burberry product and each has a dedicated library of playlists to listen to. Customers can pre-book their preferred room through the mini program.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

Thomas’s Cafe

To complement the store is Thomas’s Cafe, a dedicated space for the Burberry community to connect. Named after the fashion house’s founder, Thomas Burberry, Thomas’s Cafe takes inspiration from the creative codes introduced by Chief Creative Officer Riccardo Tisci, including high-gloss tones of beige, layered curtains and chamfered mirroring.

Burberry Luxury’s First Social Retail Store in Shenzhen

Nature and Burberry’s Animal Kingdom are also referenced throughout the space and can be seen in the prints on the wall, taken from the brand’s archives by Riccardo, as well as in the bespoke tableware that is exclusive to the Thomas’s Cafe.
The menu celebrates English and Chinese tea culture with playful and modern fusion elements. The café menu can also evolve as customers engage with the WeChat mini program and their social currency advances, unlocking new menu items.
The café is designed as a dynamic space, which can be converted into a community space for activities including talks, workshops, exhibitions and live performances, with bookings made through the mini program.

by AN shopfitting magazine no.159 ©

Photos courtesy Burberry


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