High street giants Debenhams and John Lewis first revealed concerns over the size of their estates last year. However, unlike many retailers struggling with space issues, the problem department stores have is not too many stores, it is too much space within them. Department stores can range from 60,000 sq ft to 200,000 sq ft – too big for modern retailing.
To stay relevant and survive, department stores announced plans to overhaul their stores and make more efficient use of space. A key word they used in common in their reconfiguration plans was “experience”, as the retailers sought to take advantage of consumers spending more of their disposable income on leisure activities than shopping. In February of this year Selfridges trialled a 3,500 sq ft boxing gym concept called BXR on the lower ground floor of its Oxford Street, W1, store.
Here, a year on from their bids to re-invent themselves as experience-based destinations, EG takes a look inside Debenhams and John Lewis.
Debenhams
When former Amazon boss Sergio Bucher took over as the chief executive of Debenhams in October last year, one of the first strategies he announced was the radical re-fashioning of the department stores in its portfolio.
Bucher called his strategy “Debenhams Redesigned” and said he wanted to invest more money in Debenhams’ food and beauty services such as the Brow Bar and Blow hair salons. The shake-up of the chain also included the closure of ten shops and downsizing.
“Providing our customers with an experience is central to the Debenhams Redesigned strategy. We are looking to optimise space, where logical, with strategic partners, to deliver products and services that are truly different and delight our customers and help fulfil our ambition to make shopping confidence-boosting, sociable and fun,” says Rob Hadfield, director of group property at Debenhams.
He adds: “We aim to create a shopping experience that increases the frequency of visits and builds a successful future for Debenhams against a fast-changing market.”
These partnerships have started opening in department stores across the country, with its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street showcasing its best experiences. It now has a Brow bar, a Blow! hairdressing salon as well as a Patisserie Valerie serving traditional afternoon tea.
“We have opened around 65 new food and drink offers with a variety of brand partners over the past two years,” says Hadfield, “while also launching a new own-brand food offer, Loaf & Bloom, and upgrading our menus and service in in-store restaurants.
“These partnerships give us the opportunity to increase customer dwell time, create social hubs and maximise customers’ shopping experience. Customers are responding positively to our food offer, showing that the strategy we have in place is taking us in the right direction.”
Debenhams has also teamed up with Sweat! gyms to open surplus space in three stores and is looking at converting space into co-working areas for offices. No deals have been agreed, but WeWork is one of the operators in early discussions with the department store.
John Lewis
John Lewis this year bolstered the experience elements of its stores to the extent that some properties even became nocturnal. For a short period over Christmas and New Year, John Lewis offered The Residence experience, which allowed customers to spend the night in a catered 1,500 sq ft John Lewis-designed flat in its Oxford Street, W1, Cambridge, and Liverpool stores.
The temporary John Lewis-clad home has since been dismantled, but the most recent innovative uses of space and experience have been incorporated into its latest 230,000 sq ft store at Westfield London, which opened on 20 March.
At the opening ceremony, managing director Paula Nickolds said: “The modern-day department store is a place to shop, do and learn under one roof.”
The “learning” experiences to which Nickolds refers include fashion talks, cookery classes, and beauty services as well as the company’s first Discovery Room, where shoppers can learn how to light a room properly and hang a painting.
“Retail is changing but today’s department shop is as relevant as it ever has been in responding to the needs of our customers,” Nickolds added. “This shop demonstrates our latest thinking on how the department store can be a place in which you can shop, do and learn in a way you haven’t been able to before. We’re bringing to west London a new level of personalised, curated shopping that until now has been the preserve of boutique shops.”
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