John Lewis is going all out for a summer of Experiential Retail. The UK retail giant has even invoked the thoughts and opinions of its customer base to come up with their National Treasures Summer Campaign.
Their flagship store in Oxford Street London will see a rooftop installation of the ‘Gardeners Arms’ pub where shoppers can have a break from the hustle and bustle of London to enjoy some food and a well-deserved drink.
The experiences are not only limited to their flagship stores though, all 48 UK branches are taking part in an experiential national treasure campaign set to celebrate ‘Best of British’. Interior decorations of stores will be transformed, events and workshops will create a ‘’destination of discovery’’ in locations across the UK with themes of creativity being at the forefront.
“We’ve come together with some of the country’s best brands and most talented national treasures to bring what we believe to be a collection of truly inspiring, immersive, interesting and innovative experiences to our customers across the country’’ Director of Customer Experience Peter Cross
Though this initiative will only be running from the 26th of April to August 20th there is a vast and wide-ranging breadth of activities on offer. With the UK annual school summer holidays falling right in the middle of this period the amount of consumers and tourists across British cities makes for a competitive retail environment during the summer months. Creating unique and exciting experiences for shoppers is going to give footfall a huge boost for John Lewis stores: it is then up to emotionally engaging sales associates to do the rest.
Whilst there is no doubt that the brand power and marketing capabilities of John Lewis will be enough to make these special events a huge success, the role of the sales associate will once again be highlighted as essential to transfer that great experience to their human to human interactions.
Capitalisation on footfall is essential, especially when footfall has been such a huge issue for retail outlets over the last decade or so. Having sales-ready associates would be a huge win for John Lewis, especially when the rigmarole around the campaign will leave consumers expectations higher than ever.
It will be interesting to find out how John Lewis perform in this very expansive experiential plan they have rolled out. If their investment in their staff and their people is anything close to their investment in this summer’s National Treasures campaign they will surely be onto a winner.
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