Future of Retail
- Naomi Pendzialek
- Jun 19, 2020
- 2 min read
With the current world situation hitting the economy harshly, it is time for brands to think forward and strategically to engage their consumers and feeling part of something. The old fashioned way of going out to the high street on a Saturday has definitely faded and is hitting big department stores harshly. Some examples of department stores closing are firstly the 10 Corso Como, New York. This is not the first location of the 10 Corso Como but the one in New York only survived roughly 2 years. The original location in Milan was opened in 1990 and is still a popular location for locals and visitors. One of the main issues with the store closing in New York is the location. The downtown location by the pier was challenging during the winter season. Another big reason was that other luxury brands were not surrounding it and people would not make the effort to travel there just to visit the department store. From my personal experience of visiting New York this January, I felt the same way. I was planning to go visit the 10 Corso Como location in New York as I have already been to the one in Seoul, South Korea and was astounded by it. As the time got shorter as everything was going so fast on that trip I also thought that it is probably not worth going all the way down to the pier. The location was the main reason for me not to visit.
Another concept store shutting due to the change in shopping behaviour is Opening Ceremony. This store was founded by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon which were friends from university that wanted to express their love for travelling, music, art, and fashion within a store. Their store first opened in 2002 in Soho and since then had expanded to Los Angeles and Tokyo. I personally visited the store during the New York trip this year and thought it was still quite up to date and had a unique touch with each room having a different vibe to it as well as a DIY station where customers were able to customise their clothing. The reasoning behind the closing of their stores from the owners is the "immense change in shopping behaviour" which makes sense as brands nowadays really need to build a connection between them and the consumer which is most easily achieved through online and especially social media.
One very large store which has been around since 1923 is Barneys New York that recently had to shut 15 of its locations is Barneys New York. The closing of the department store, especially the popular one in New York's 5th Avenue with a monthly rent of 30 million dollars was a shock for many people. Due to the rise in rent prices and once again the change in shopping behaviour it has now shut a lot of its locations around the US.
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