Hardly a week goes by without the plight of high street retailers hitting the newspapers. It’s clear that brands need to fight harder for our footfall, and make more of an effort to impress us once we’ve passed the threshold of their shop door. One set of businesses defying the online trend, are French grands magasins. Last year, these department stores’ profits grew by 4.1%, outperforming the wider clothes market by 3.7%. Paolo de Cesare—head of Le Printemps, one of the grands magasins—thinks it’s because of their attitude to in-store experience. “There is a French way,” which offers shoppers “uniqueness, differentiation and experiences.” Currently, Le Bon Marché has a bright pink skate ramp suspended from the ceiling of its Paris store. While, in LA, they’ve gone, well, LA; pop-up food stalls, an in-store yoga studio, and a tattoo artist. With creative stunts and added extras drawing in consumers, it might be time to think about redefining what your in-store experience looks like to give it that certain je ne sais quoi.
Every week, we ask people across the UK to give us their opinions on what they’re loving, what they’re hating, and everything in between. Can you guess whether the UK prefer showers or baths, and how many people can tell Ant and Dec apart?
