Underground Connection: A New World in Old Street

In an area of London not short of innovation, and with retail delights and surprises bursting out of every industrial alley way and distressed doorway, the newest players are moving underground, taking residence amongst the newsagents and cobblers of Old Street Station.

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Just arrived on the Northern line, F is the new pop-up store from French Connection., tapping into the trendy clientele commuting from city central. F has taken up residence for seven months, shunting its newest fashions through the festive frenzy with an opportunity to extend should the spring sunshine be generous and favourable to this adventurous arrival.

F is a hybrid shop. It includes a small ladies wear edit collection in its hundred square metres or so, but strategically acts as a collection point for its express ordering service. Whether bought online or in-store French Connection promises to deliver into store for pick-up by five pm the same day, literally allowing customers to arrive as one person and depart back to suburbia fully fashion refreshed.

The F store is part of a wider trend to use transport hubs for ordering and collecting everything from apples and pears to denim skinnies and fashionable flairs. No longer the inconvenience of home delivery, but the lifestyle luxury of never missing a step, or loosing your strides, in the high speed roll-out of Omni-channel opportunities.

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Never an F word spoken, as cool convenience panders to the time paucity of the workforce movers, and French Connection plays to the plaudits and pockets the price indifference.

Do you sell in the most attractive and convenient way, in relation to your customers’ lifestyle and movements? Can they browse and shop with freedom to collect in a place that is best for them?

VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as F by French Connection, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.

We have recently worked with one of the world’s most recogniseable  automotive brands on a multi-channel strategy to sell and collect merchandise linking online with retail stores.

tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com

Personal Spaces: A Meeting of Monsoon Minds

Monsoon and Accessorize, although long time co-inhabitants of the same family home, have rarely and inconsistently been seen out in public together.

 

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However lifestyle changes and a move towards the evolution of an intimate third place for women have resulted in a more common and strategic crossing of paths, with not only shared store space but a single and a more powerful customer proposition.

Celebrating the home as a private space, a place for leisure, relaxation and contemplation the advent and evolution of loungewear, homewear, resort wear, crossing the boundaries between nightwear and outerwear has brought together the warmth and comfort of knitwear, cashmeres and loose cottons with the indulgence of intimate accessories.
In the wake of this gentle revolution the emotional walls between assortment categorisation, and the physical walls of shop departmental planning have both come tumbling down.

Monsoon’s modernised spaces are open and inviting leading the customer from seasonal sweaters and winter warmth through an embracing central sanctuary of ever-present softness to the final temptation of accessories heaven, in a journey as seamless as the passing hours of a perfect day.

A significant commercial response to a subtle lifestyle change heralds in a new daywear dawn for both Monsoon & Accessorize.

 

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What’s happening in your sector?
How is your customer’s lifestyle evolving and are you adapting your proposition to maximise the commercial opportunities?

VM-unleashed constantly monitors best practice such as Monsoon and Accessorize, to provide the most up to date and best practice guidance for its clients.

Tiger Earns Its Stripes: The Cat In Search of the Cream of London

Natural survivors evolve and expand beyond their traditional habitats widening their historical distribution.

 

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Tiger, with its impulse offer and low prices, is thriving and turning up not only in secondary locations and low-rent backwaters but on some of the most expensive streets in London. After a trial in Tottenham Court Road, the Danish destination has opened its doors on Oxford Street, rubbing shoulders with value giants such as Primark and Sports Direct.

Rather than changing its spots, Tiger is earning its stripes converting the passing pedestrian in huge numbers, filling their baskets to overflowing with everything from drawing pins to rolling pins, toilet to paint brushes, dried spices to coconut ices.

But this stalker of the unsuspecting is no stranger to breaking convention, creating impulse assortment, creaming the easy sales, unburdened by the necessity to create unwieldy assortment widths, chasing choice that the modern shopper cannot cope with.

In common with cross-sector stars such as Lidl and Aldi buying narrow but buying smart is a formula that works both far and wide.

When it comes to choice there is currently only one winner in the urban jungle. Tiger takes its turn on the golden streets of London.

 

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Are you missing the easy sales, whilst chasing the hollow promise of choice?

The Monki Puzzle: Selling in a Sea of Scallops

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Welcome to the wonderful & truly unique world of Monki.

Monki is a philosophy for life and style, brought to life, through conceptual store design, that encourages the individual to be – individual, true to themselves and not afraid to express their values through fashion.

Carnaby Street is the latest Monki incarnation based on an undersea world of decaying wrecks, sunken carousels, barnacled rigging, giant jellyfish and a myriad of underwater embellishments.

The fashion style is fun and free, encouraging shoppers to break the rules, be inspired by their senses and shop to their impulsive potential. Refreshing fashion in stagnant waters.

 

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Irregular Heartbeat: The Life & Soul of Footwear

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In the heart of Carnaby Street, at the centre of Soho is a footwear store that embodies and embraces the entrepreneurial spirit and ethos of excitement of the area like no other.

Irregular Choice will set the pulse racing of anyone on the prowl for individual and exciting footwear. 600 footwear ideas a year come from the creative mind of Dan Sullivan the inspiration and energy behind the brand.

The store embraces this individuality and breaks away from the blandness and banality of many footwear retailers, as sequined walls, iconic graphics, bold prints and patterned places create the perfect setting for ones mans vision of what fashion footwear should be.

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Try this for size!: “One Small step…Cool Haan”

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Classic New York Footwear Retailer Cole Haan bursts through the time-warp bubble with a cool as you like New Store concept in Smooth Soho.

 

Iconic imagery creates dramatic wall impact communicating the brands origins, whilst a stylised Subway Map adopts a tube line for each of Col Haan’s hero shoe designs. Low volume for high impact.

Clear the Classic Clutter for Style Stories that Stride the Decades.

 

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