It’s a bold gambit, given previous attempts at creating new, experiential bricks-and-mortar concepts haven’t always succeeded — and it won’t suit every brand. However, it raises some interesting questions about the future of retail.
As the founder of retail innovation agency Outform, Haroush has worked with the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Estée Lauder and Sephora on developing their retail vision, from design to execution. Over time, he identified some fundamental challenges in traditional retail that he wanted to address, including low engagement — due in large part to how homogeneous high streets were becoming — and difficulty when it came to measuring ROI. Future Stores was designed to address these pain points.
Along the back of the ground floor of the space — which spans an entire block of Oxford Street — are floor-to-ceiling high-definition micro-LED displays. The frontage is almost entirely glass, allowing passers-by to see the screens. And the screens are certainly head-turning. On the tour, Haroush switches from a welcome display to one tailor-made for consumer electronics firm Intel — Future Stores’s first brand resident — which features fluorescent jellyfish and a flying whale. This particular activation has been designed to show the possibilities of generative AI, so prompts appear on the screen above our heads. “Add grass to the foreground” is typed in, and lo, grass appears. When it opens at the end of the month, visitors will be able to play games live in store and buy Intel’s new range of AI PCs (PCs that come equipped with processors designed to run AI software on the device itself).
But it’s not just about immersive entertainment: there is an integrated payment system that allows brands to turn the space into a point of sale and a stockroom on the basement floor. Cameras capture data on shopper behaviour at a more granular level than traditional retailers (which typically rely on monitoring how many people cross the threshold). Currently, the team can track footfall inside and outside the store, dwell time and gender. Age and sentiment will follow in 2025.
“It’s an amazing canvas for storytelling in a retail environment where you can actually buy,” says Haroush. Consumers will also be able to connect with brands through live demos, tutorials and/or showcases led by influencers and creators. “In this way, it is more powerful than a traditional retail pop-up, whose ROI is hard to measure,” says Haroush.