Almost as good as it gets

Flagship stores are at home in retail capitals like New York and London. In the numerous stores, almost everything is allowed in terms of digital signage and retail design – it doesn’t have to be profitable. At Adidas in London, despite the immense investment, a scalable concept can be experienced. Says Florian Rotberg after his tour of the store.

2019 was the year of the sports goods flagship stores. A race between Nike, Adidas, Puma & Co. for the most innovative creations. Today, nothing works without an app – the customer journey starts way before the store and hopefully never ends. By a wide margin, Nike is the pioneer among the global sports brands: thanks to the House of Innovation, which, after its world premiere in Shanghai, has also been inviting customers to 5th Ave in New York since the end of 2018.

Across the street, Puma has opened a flagship store that is making headlines less with apps than with a virtual football experience. On 5th Avenue, Adidas cannot keep up because the shop concept is outdated. The company, however, demonstrates with its new flagship in London that it knows how to create experiences. Since September, the global brand with the three stripes has been presenting itself in a historic building on Oxford Street opposite Selfridge.

Shortly before Christmas invidis was on site in London and took a look around. With over 100 digital touchpoints, the four-storey store is more than just a brand showcase. Here sales are generated, products can be experienced, and services are used – including entertainment and fun.

Many brands and retailers claim to have reinvented the point of sale with new flagship concepts. Adidas has kept its promise. Even if some things are exaggerated here or there, the majority of touchpoints have been well implemented. The allocation within the store seems sensible; the concept offers unique shopper activations as well as experiences that have never been seen before.

The concept delivers in practice

We had the unique opportunity to experience the Adidas LDN two days in a row – before and after an overnight makeover for the launch of the new Ultra Boost 20 shoe collection, so we could witness how flexible the new flagship concept is.

The entrance area is the big stage for Adidas: surrounded by floor-to-ceiling LED walls, the brand celebrates product launches here. Visual merchandisers – formerly known as „Schauwerbegestalter“ – enjoy the generous space to play around here. For the release of the space-inspired Super Boost 20, a spaceship landed in the entrance area; the LED walls turned into digital moonscapes.

Most striking was the transformation of the digital football pitch. The day before, visitors could play against a computer on an LED football pitch, controlled by eight latest-generation Microsoft Kinect sensors. One day later, the area was equipped with treadmill-based zero gravity simulators. The LED screens provided the moon atmosphere and retail systems suspended from the ceiling were used to present the matching fashion collection. Adidas chose the Visplay Multilane system for this purpose, which can also integrate power and network.

In addition to the Launch Area and a gamification area, the ground floor is home to another hype subject: sustainability. Adidas Parley is a collection that uses recycled plastics. A very important topic, not only since Greta Thunberg and not limited to Generation Z. Adidas has set itself the target of using only recycled plastics in its production by 2024. However, customers are not yet prepared to pay a premium for this. At its London flagship store, Adidas presents its environmental commitment on large-scale LEDs and using walls filled with plastic waste.

Environmental aspects also play a role in the choice of digital technologies: Only green electricity is used and, not only for design reasons, translucent LEDs were chosen for both the shop window and the atrium.

Interactive touchpoints are convincing

There are also numerous interactive touchpoints on the other floors. Most important for marketing is the MakersLab. Here, customers can not only have jerseys flocked, but also use patches to personalize shoes and clothing purchased in the store. Adidas regularly invites local artists who transform Adidas products into works of art on site.

For us, two other touchpoints are relevant – the fully digitalized fitting rooms in the men’s department and the sneaker bar in the basement. The intelligent changing rooms have Smart Mirrors. Customers can hold the RFID-equipped merchandise up to the mirrors and then receive additional information about the product. At the same time, they can get real-time information on the availability of the right size. An employee can be called from the fitting room to bring the right size or color to the changing room. In this area, brands like Adidas have an immense (data and content) advantage over multi-brand retailers. However, not everything is perfect either – in the invidis test, no information was provided for some products, although the data was available in the online shop. The speed of the applications in the cabin, as well as that of many touchscreens in the store, is still far from a perfect joy of use. Obviously, the internet was too slow.

One highlight is a special fitting room equipped with a 98-inch display. Background scenes for the digital signage display can be selected via a separate touch screen – the only use case, however, are selfies. Virtually Instagramable moments in a one square meter fitting room. The technology is provided by Avery Dennison (RFID), Detego Software, Pyramid Computer and Nordic ID.

Another – albeit very analog – experience is the sneaker bar in the basement. Customers can take a seat on barber chairs and have the outside of their own sneakers cleaned free of charge. Those who want more can get their shoes cleaned inside and out for a fee. Unusual services for a sports retailer, such as fitting and tailoring appointments are also available at Adidas LDN.

A flagship in the year 2020 would not be a real lighthouse if customers could not access additional information and services in the store via an app. Using AR with image recognition, customers can scan selected collections in the store with their smartphones and order items in their size. Employees then bring the desired product directly to the customer – the employee can see the customer’s position on his or her tablet, provided the customer is still in front of the shelf. Of course, the goods can be purchased straight away without having to queue up at a cash register.

From a digital signage perspective, the LED elements integrated into the presentation of the soccer boots are also relevant. Storytelling at the PoS is especially important for this kind of emotional products. Less well done are the projections onto mid-floor fixtures or onto the grey shoe wall. Adidas uses projectors that are based on light rails and provide limited brightness. However, customers expect interaction in these areas – simple projection does not cut it anymore.

However, we like this flagship store because it uses digital signage in a variety of ways and covers the different needs of sneaker heads, football fans or fashionistas. Furthermore, the concept proves its high flexibility in practice. We will certainly find many elements in other flagship stores as well as in multi-brand retailers in the future.