EE
EE's Showcase stores are designed to provide customers with a more personal and immersive experience. The format, created by retail design consultancy Quinine, ‘showcases’ the best service, the best network and products on offer from EE and BT, positioning the brand beyond mobile phones and into the multi quad-play market.
Location
London / Nationwide
Designer
Quinine
Photographer
Gareth Gardner
DBA Design Effectiveness Award Winner
High ceilings at the front of the store ‘wow’ customers as they step inside. Lower ceilings at the centre create a more ‘intimate’ space, for face-to-face chats with staff.
A subtle palette of grey, black and white walls is lifted with powder-coated metal in the aqua and yellow EE brand colours. There’s soft seating throughout the store, with round café style tables creating a relaxed, open ambience; and no barriers between customers and staff, whilst privacy booths provide quiet spaces for more in-depth demos and form filling.
The format is flexible, modular and scalable, with versatile fixtures and architectural details which allow it to be applied to different types and sizes of stores.
Quinine is an integrated research, strategy and design consultancy aiming to create world-class social, cultural and commercial experiences that enrich and delight people’s everyday lives.
“We softened the space by adding more raw and human elements and introduced a conversational tone of voice.” Ian Johnston, founder of Quinine said on designing the stores.
“It’s always worth remembering that the store is a workplace for frontline staff. Looking at the store more as an office space can prompt a new and insightful direction. There’s evidence that well-designed experiential retail stores can raise staff morale, increase productivity, loyalty… and ultimately, create better customer experiences”
COEXPERTISE
Project Lead: Clare Edmondon
We worked alongside Quinine to help select, procure, deliver and install products that would complement their design; whilst remaining robust enough for a busy retail environment.
Stools needed to be produced in bespoke brand colours along with chairs for more formal client discussions. They needed to hit the budget and complement this new retail experience created by Quinine. With the help of Magis and Vitra, we worked on batch production to make sure we were ready to meet the deadlines for each new concept stores launch.
Initially, five Showcase stores were opened, but they’ve performed so well the format has since been rolled out to a number of other locations across the UK, with more to come. The Showcase stores are attracting a larger, tech-savvy, younger audience, they’re achieving higher conversion rates and have improved the average transaction value versus control stores.
