The new John Lewis concept store, our perspective

At last! Our eagerly anticipated visit to John Lewis Exeter finally arrived, a new Flexible Format Concept Store, which has been featuring regularly in the recent trade press. This format is bigger than an At Home store but smaller than the regular John Lewis (JLP) stores. Two things were of particular interest to us; how they were going to manage with the smaller footprint, (about half that of an average JLP store), and how the integration of the omni-channel offer was going to work for the shopper, a structure in which they are so successfully driving retail and winning awards for.

As enthusiastic bricks and mortar shoppers we were expecting to feel a little short changed by the limited extent of the product range on show, compared with what JLP would normally show on a more traditional scale. But it was everything and more. The use of space was simply awesome, nothing looked too busy or crammed, the displays were exquisitely presented, eye catching and really encouraged you to look at and feel the product. Each area given sufficient space, the area devoted to handbags was staggering in itself! We wondered if some of the larger stores could take lessons from the way that the products were displayed. Rugs on hangers so easy to look through compared to rugs in piles on the floor; it is hard work and possibly presents a barrier to purchase in larger stores.

Each department was given its own personality through use of colour and displays on hand, take the homewares department for instance with a huge handwritten recipe acting as a backdrop on the wall.

As well documented in the press, JLP are the champions of omni-channel retailing in the UK, and its inclusion was part of the brief for the Exeter store. The use of interactive digital screens to extend the range was readily available, all departments had one, and the welcome screen was defaulted to the department you were in, it was very easy to navigate. The H&B concessions had beautiful digital images as backdrops, and in menswear digitally scrolling catalogues were one of the most effective uses of digital screens in store that we have seen outside of London and the main out of town shopping centres. But honestly? We can’t call thisomni-channel, it is using both the on-line facility to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the range so well, and using digital in a very appealing and eye catching way in store, but we still wait for the nod towards Omni.

For a small department store, we still managed to spend a pleasurable two hours checking out what the store had to offer. Alas this meant no time for coffee. But our conclusion to the visit was that yes this new Flexible Format Concept Store lives up to the justifiable hype, in a JLP continues to go from strength to strength kind of way. And we are so looking forward to the excuse for a revisit.

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This post was written by Dawn Odoi