If you‘re a regular in London‘s Tottenham Court Walk shopping precinct, you have noticed the brand new Fabled by Marie Claire shop.
While concept store is the result of a partnership between online grocer Ocado and women‘s magazine Marie Claire, it‘s the interior design that makes it striking.
Fabled by Marie Claire was designed by consultancy firm Gpstudio, with branding completed by The Clearing.
Because the shop is an extension – and the first physical shop – of the existing online Fabled store, Gpstudio founding partner Gregor Jackson said he wanted to merge online and bricks-and-mortar beauty shopping experiences in one place.
With a somewhat minimal and white interior look, with the odd dash of colour and the use of simple, sans-serif fonts on signs, one of the things a customer may notice is that till points are not a focal point as is often seen in other stores – the design allows them to be deliberately subtle.
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There are also touchscreens where customers can learn about brands and specific products, test-and-experiment areas in every part of the store, and entire spaces devoted to fragrance, skincare and makeup.
In addition, there‘s a Fabled Edits section that is all about seasonal recommendations, based on a concept from the Marie Claire magazines themselves.
“With the design we wanted to combine the ease and convenience of researching and shopping online with the comfort and delight of shopping in store,” Jackson told the Retail Gazette.
“We eliminated many traditional aspects of big retail and beauty stores and used an integrated a mobile payment system whereby the Fabled team handle transactions on iPads, alongside dedicated till points, giving the customer more options in terms of how and when they pay.”
Jackson added that he believes the concept store is the “future of shopping”.
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