Ikea’s latest PR stunt ‘The Big Sleepover’, which offered fans the opportunity to stay in its Lakeside store for the night, has generated a lot of word-of-mouth.

The idea originated from clever monitoring of social media. The brand spotted a group set-up by avid Ikea fans on Facebook called ‘I Wanna Have a Sleepover in Ikea’ with over 100,000 members and saw the opportunity to link the customers’ request to their on-going ‘Happy to Bed’ campaign.

The event was a huge success from a marketing perspective. 100 guests attended the event including journalists and bloggers. The following day the blogzine went wild for Ikea: ‘we got sleep themed goodie bags, midnight snacks and were entertained by the reading of bedtime stories – Ikea is amazing!’ ‘It’s a dream come true…I heart Ikea’ etc. while a campaign for more stores to follow suit has begun.

So, if it works as a marketing initiative, can retail sleepovers work as a store-based service?

Parisian fashion boutique Paperdolls thinks so, so much so they’ve turned it into a new revenue stream. This week they are offering fashionistas the chance to stay the night at their Montmartre store – which has an appropriately domestic Parisian apartment aesthetic and layout – in order to beat the sales queues. For a fee of €200 (£165) visitors will get the chance to spend the whole night trying on all of the bargains, complete with on-hand stylist to offer fashion advice, whilst everyone else sets-up camp in the cold outside in the hope of bagging whatever’s left.

We’ll be sleeping in Apple stores pre-launch before you know it…

Following on from our post about Wantful earlier this week, Amazon’s latest service additions have given us food for thought.

The online giant have created the ‘Universal Wish List’, a button that users simply drag onto their toolbar that allows them to save products from any website in one place. The aim is to make it easier to consolidate the items you’re after and also, alert people to all the gifts you might be angling after.

The list can even contain items that Amazon doesn’t stock. Why is Amazon allowing this you might ask? Well the benefit for them is simple – knowledge. Allowing users to do this gives Amazon’s buying team a clear advantage as they get direct insight into the products that customers want to buy that they don’t currently offer.

Amazon also plans to begin operating another gifting initiative - one that offers recipients happy but sneaky returns. Dubbed the ‘Aunt Mildred’ button, the service allows users to secretly exchange unwanted presents for more desirable items before they are even shipped. If your Aunt Mildred has bought you a festive jumper or a CD from a band you stopped listening to years ago, the new system alerts you, and with the click of a button you have a gift certificate to spend as you please instead. And all the while Aunt Mildred is none the wiser.

The idea is efficient, if a little heartless. The button will save Amazon millions in return shipping costs, the recipient gets to choose something they actually want and of course poor old Aunt Mildred doesn't waste her money…

These two new initiatives and the recent Amazon barcode scanning app (that rewards shoppers for buying through Amazon rather than at the store they’re in at the time) show that Amazon is a brand pioneering the use of behavioural insight to drive clever and compatible shopper tools, making it easier to buy. Helping others to shop for you is something that more retailers should be thinking about, particularly as the gifting market continues to diversify and grow.

Wantful is a new San Francisco start-up that aims to make it easier to give the perfect gift - by letting the recipient have a say in the matter.

After signing up, shoppers answer a series of questions about the person they are shopping for. The site then generates 16 items in a specified price range that it thinks might be appropriate gifts, these are then printed in a customised, beautifully wrapped book that is delivered to the gift recipient. The recipient then chooses an item from the list, and the giver is charged the appropriate amount. The site also links into social media sites making it easy for users to sync in all of their friends’ birthdays and receive handy reminders.

The goal of the service according to founder John Poisson is to ease the stress of worrying about giving the perfect gift, bringing back the experience and the feel-good emotion of giving a nice present. And Wantful have succeed – as the insiders guide 7X7 state on the brands website: “The effect on the person receiving the book is like being invited to go on a personalised shopping trip for something special that you’d probably not buy for yourself.”

This new service is already proving to be a sure fire hit with those who are time pressed and desire gifting inspiration. This is clearly something gift retailers with bricks and mortar outlets could learn from. A similar service could translate into a system to better link online and real-world offers, driving traffic into store.

Unfortunately Wantful is currently only available in the USA – let’s hope it spreads its wings and helps more struggling shoppers find that perfect gift soon…

The Body Shop is one of the few stores in the new Westfield Stratford shopping centre that has really stepped-up its game by taking cues from key trends in the beauty retail sector and making these feel more personal to the brands customer community.

The key standouts in-store are:

Real Reviews:

The store features a ‘Top 10’ product area, common in many beauty stores but The Body Shop manages to make it feel more relevant. Rather than basing the list on sales, it’s based on customer opinion - showing handwritten comments that explain why this particular 10 have been championed. This gives a real feeling of what is truly loved about the product. QR codes allow those with a real appetite for information to see more reviews online.

Community Wall:

Customers can contribute to the store by offering opinions and sharing news on the Community Wall. This area of the store is dedicated to highlighting both local and global issues that the brand and its supporters are passionate about.

Clear Provenance:

The link between ingredients and product is continually emphasised with planting dotted throughout the store providing a sensory reminder of the products raw ingredients. The ‘living wall’ feature leads passers-by in-store by providing a link between the exterior and interior wall. Allowing customers to touch, smell and read more about the contents of the core product range whilst learning about their suppliers and origins.

The Body Shop succeeds in telling its brand story with impact throughout the experience, making shoppers feel like they are a part of it. This feels like a space that both customers and the brand have shaped – it’s easy to feel good about shopping and spending here.

Mary Portas ‘Queen of Shops’ has opened in House of Fraser setting a new standard for the rest of the department store in terms of its unrelenting service and immaculate style.

‘Mary’ targets the sophisticated shopper and the store environment instantly reflects a certain maturity but with a bit of a wild streak. Key design features take lead from the outgoing personality of the ‘queen of shops’ - from the army of lookalike mannequins to the consistent flashes of the signature colour orange that matches her iconic carrot bob.

The concession features collaborations with well-known retailers such as Clarks, Charnos and Whistles as well as a small range of products that have been designed by Mary herself. Nothing has been included into the product-mix without consideration and small postcards at POS have been used to tell the story behind each product line to customers.

With the more experienced shopper in mind - a customer group that Mary Portas herself belongs to - it’s not surprising that service takes centre stage. The shop assistants come dressed as bellboys, who run to your assistance should you hit the panic button in the changing room or even if you just fancy a cup of coffee while deliberating your choices. And if all that isn’t up to standard you are invited to leave a message for Mary through the ‘moan phone’, which she will respond to personally.

The main success is the clever delivery of expertise direct from ‘Mary’ thanks to the conversational tone of voice used throughout the in-store communications, making this retail experience feel far more personal for the customer.

The Dixons BLACK concept won the Specialist Store Design of the year, the Non-food Design of the year and also scooped the Best Retail Interior award. More information about the Dixons BLACK concept store can be found in the ‘Clients’ section of our website along with links to related press features.   For full details of the Retail Interiors Awards 2011 see: http://www.retailweekinteriorsawards.co.uk/

Household had a fabulous Fashion Night Out at the Christian Louboutin Mount Street Store.  It was all about delectable shoes, bags, bouffants and perfect lashes…The brilliant DJ’s London Guns rocked the store getting everyone into the party mood, which swept out onto the street, and into stores all over the West End. 

Next door to Christian Louboutin, Net a Porter launched ‘Window Shop’, and were handing around iPads for people to shop from the oversized window graphics via NAP’s newly launched app.  Very excited fashionistas were waving their iPads at the shopfront, buying cool catwalk looks and cooing over prizes spontaneously being won.  Online shopping just went from ‘virtual’ to ‘real world’ theatrical.

The categories that we have been nominated for are Specialist Store of the year, and Non-Food Retailer of the year.

A bit about BLACK…

The Dixons’ BLACK concept store defines a new experience for electricals, offering a selected range of products in an environment created to meet customers’ lifestyle and design-driven wants. BLACK behaves like a fashion store and offers customers an exciting new environment to play with and way to buy technology.   More details about the BLACK concept can be found in the ‘Clients’ section of our website along with links to related press features.   For more information about the Retail Interiors Awards go to:

http://twe.ly/dPob

Having recently worked with Soho House on their Shoreditch House hotel and Cowshed scheme, and with another hotel underway, we are out to spot innovation that is all about taking the customer experience to the next level in the sector. We’ve seen hotels such as W create a room service promise that goes well beyond the confines of the actual room with their ‘Whatever/Whenever’, so we were keen to find out more about The Standard’s added extra that opens up a whole new world for their guests.

The Standard Hotels in New York and Los Angeles have long been regarded as the epitome of cool. Now StndAIR has launched, an 8-seater plane that can fly guests up to the sociable climes of the Hamptons for under $500, and be chartered for anywhere in a 300 miles radius. The really nice touch, as the NOTCOT blog points out, is that there is a flight board where basically travellers receive cheaper fares the more people they recommend the service to and the earlier they book, with a seat from as little as $30. That is, unless, you want to splurge and just hire the whole plane.

While not quite as ambitious as Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic offering, it does show that customers are increasingly demanding more esoteric experiences from the most luxurious of hotels; it’s not just about a comfy bed with a great view. For The Standard it’s a brand extension that serves to further highlight the terribly chic aura the hotel has by selling itself, its services and therefore that aura beyond the physical boundaries of the hotel walls.

The service runs May 26 – October 10 of this year.

A little bit of Theatre

This year Salone del Mobile in Milan celebrated its 50^th anniversary. It is the world’s largest Furniture design exhibition for both commercial and homeware.

Companies large, small or emerging premiered their new collections. Over 2,700 companies exhibited at the event. This is snap shot of what inspired us. The visitor walks, (or grabs a cab) to 3 different sites across Milan. In 2 days and very sore feet, we saw but a hand full. But what we saw was very inspiring. Everyone talks about the Trends that come out of these shows. Trends in furniture, lighting, materials, colours, the list goes on. So I am going to talk theatre; after all this is an exhibition and everyone is there to get attention, so standing out is crucial. You have to create a talking point or risk getting lost in the crowd.

The Main event at Nuovo Sisteema Fera were Kartell. Their event was like a fun fair of Furniture: They had pulled together collections that made you look at their furniture through very different eyes – even the old classics had a fresh feel about them. Moroso created lounges; their collaboration with Diesel being the stand-out example.

Moving to the streets of Milan, the showrooms made worthy efforts: Cassina with its magic, floating chairs and a pop-up store that had a rain forest with singing birds to show off its outdoor wears. Tom Dixon’s space had been turned in to a pop-up restaurant, so the smells and temptation to linger created theatre of their own. Venturing to the new design area Ventura Lambrate revealed lots of little events occurring, but Mini’s was by far the most eye catching. And a Japanese drinking bar was showcasing lightweight installations, creating a dramatic space. The School of Architecture played host to excellence from around Europe and had a fab little pop-up shop too. Permanent store Rossana Orlandi, with her exquisite eye, had picked the best selections for her store.

And then to Milan itself, we were confronted with Nature returning to the city with the Cuorebosco installation. Trees, synchronised with light and sounds changed throughout the day to evoke different moments in time, a magical place to pause and digest all the sheer force of creativity that is the Milan Furniture Fair. A big thank you to SCP who made this a fantastic and productive trip for us.