SPRING//SUMMER 2018 23 22 SPRING//SUMMER 2018 SAT at an elegant desk, coffee in hand, I contemplate catching up on belated thank-you letters and paperwork as I gaze out over the rooftops. The only indication I’m not staying in a hip urban apartment in London or New York is the pile of business cards for a John Lewis personal shopper stacked neatly to my left. For this is, in fact, a corner of its Oxford Street flagship store, turned into an in-store apartment known as The Residence with the express aim of bringing John Lewis products to life. The coffee was made for me a few minutes ago by the attentive concierge who guides me from room to room. As well as the leafy study, there’s a dining area and lounge. The bedroom across the way even has a hanging rail complete with clothes. Everything you see, you can buy in store. “We call it our Only Here campaign,” says the concierge cheerfully. John Lewis is at the forefront of a drive to make department stores more experiential. “As part of our plans to differentiate the John Lewis brand and to reinvent the department store for the 21st century, our shops continue to be a place where customers come and experience our brand. It’s the physical manifestation of what we stand for,’ explains Paula Nickolds, managing director at John Lewis. Hence the desks on display on the third floor have notebooks, diaries, filing boxes and paperweights from a variety of ranges (both in-house and branded) positioned casually on worktops and shelves. Customers are encouraged to take a seat, relax, touch and feel, and soak up the environment – to see the products in a lifestyle setting. A recently opened branch of John Lewis in Oxford reflects this change of emphasis in the store design. One fifth of the floorspace is dedicated to services and experiences. There’s an ‘experience desk’ where a ‘brand experience manager’ helps customers plan their day. New shoppers are invited to take hotel-style tours of the store and there’s a rolling programme of exclusive events to include master classes and home-design styling. Personalisation and interaction are the buzz words here – personalised stationery is one of the many services on offer. Nickolds adds: “More than a route to selling things, our Oxford shop aims Stationery addict and editor of the Daily Mail’s Femail Magazine CHARLOTTE KEMP investigates how department stores are leading the retail pack by delivering experiences in store The Residence at John Lewis’s flagship Oxford Street store in London to inspire and delight our customers. It’s entirely focused on customer experience, with partners and finishing details at the heart of that.” At Liberty’s The Paper Room, regular workshops, advertised on the Liberty Life area of the website, are a great platform for stationery suppliers, too. Typoretum, a letterpress and design studio based in Colchester, was invited to run a two-day Valentine’s event in The Paper Room, offering customers the chance to create their own bespoke cards printed on Typoretum’s Victorian Parlour Press. “It’s the first time we’ve been invited, and we are really excited to be working in such a beautiful space in one of London’s most iconic stores,” says Cecilia, who founded Typoretum with her husband Justin Knopp. “We will be letting our customers know about the event via our social media channels and we look forward to meeting new customers on the day. We hope to attract both new and existing customers to Typoretum. “We live now in such a digital world, events like these give people the opportunity to engage with and experience the tactile elements of traditional craft, to see the magic of the process unfold before their eyes.” Providing immersive brand experiences is proving to be particularly popular at attracting younger shoppers into stores. In a recent survey carried out by marketing and advertising analysts Campaign, more than half (51%) of consumers agreed they are more likely to buy from brands whose stores are interesting or different, rising to 63% for under 34s. DEPARTMENT STORE SPECIAL: EXPERIENCE, NOT SELLING JOHN LEWIS IS ATTHE FOREFRONT OF A DRIVETO MAKE DEPARTMENT STORES MORE EXPERIENTIAL. THE GOAL IS TO OFFER CUSTOMERS A MEMORABLE IN-STORE EXPERIENCE THEY WILL WANT TO SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Bringing experience into shopping at John Lewis,Oxford Street The Paper Room at Liberty