What: Overlooking Plaza Cataluña and located in one of Barcelona's most prominent buildings, Desigual open a new flagship store with a new shop concept.

Why it is important: The user experience takes centre stage with a 15 metres long slide connecting the mezzanine with the ground floor in the centre of the shop.

Distributed on the ground floor and a mezzanine that occupies less space and creates a balcony inside the shop, the Desigual collections are displayed in a new and more conceptual way thanks to the furniture made at KIMA.

Desigual in Barcelona

Desigual in Barcelona ARTICLE

What: In Shanghai, the leading Chinese pet nutrition company Peidi has created a community home for pet lovers.

Why it is important: The pet-related products are doing great as it was mentioned by some members during the 2022 IADS Home & Decor meeting.

The flagship retail space, Paw Day, encompasses a pet spa, salon, fresh food, daycare, hotel, an outdoor activity zone, dog swimming pool and a coffee shop.

A concept store for pets

What: Dior Seoul has redefined the term 'pop-up store' by constructing an entirely new building in the image of its flagship of flagships on avenue Montaigne in Paris.

Why is it important: This elevated pop-up store will remain open not just for a few weeks, but for the next three years. The fashion house goes the extra yard to raise its profile in this growing luxury market by opening the pop-up store in Seongdong, an affluent area of town that is regarded as an upcoming upscale shopping area.

The Dior pop-up store is created by the brand's in-house design team and is set up like a greenhouse, featuring a frame of shimmering steel and glass. The interior design sees various settings, with original works by Korean designers, featuring a wide range of coveted Dior merchandise. A timber cage-like structure at the centre of the store features an aesthetic with fluid rounded corners. The café Dior where shoppers can sit back in between power shopping sprees and enjoy a recreated atmosphere of the mansion in Granville, a coastal town in Normandy, where monsieur Dior spent his childhood.

Dior pop-up in Seoul

What: New fitness store, Bala, took over a space in Soho, inviting shoppers to work out on oversized editions of its equipment.

Why is it important: Ringo Studio transformed the NYC Spring Street pop-up interior into a 'playground' by reinterpreting Bala's fitness products, including wrist/ankle weights, power rings, beams and more, on a large scale.

The visually inviting sculptural reeditions of Bala's equipment encourage shoppers to interact with the product in a tactile, intuitive way. A bright pink room complete with a shag carpet and velvet curtains doubles down on the physically sensorial quality of the retail space.

The space's combination of product integration at many different levels reflects a cohesive, experiential concept sure to positively impact brand-loyalty levels.

Bala store by Ringo Studio

What: Champs Sports is making a major statement with its newest store, the 35,000-square-foot store is the largest in the fleet and chock full of experiences.

Why is it important: Champs concentrates primarily on young athletes and Homefield offers them a supersized group of experiences targeted to them, but this store is expected to appeal to older shoppers as well. Its grand opening is set for April 22.

The store features a basketball court, a digital VR experience that mimics a Combine, a smoothie bar and a health and wellness department. There's also a larger assortment of apparel and sneakers for a wide range of sports including running, weight training, and yoga, as well as equipment. Top brands include Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Jordan Brand as well as private labels Eastbay Performance, CSG and Cozi.

The store's half-court basketball court will allow visitors to shoot baskets and work on their ball-handling skills and will also be the spot for yoga or HIIT classes. The smoothie bar will serve ReFuel Your Game with Smoothie 123, and the 2,500-square-foot health and wellness area features nutritional and recovery foods and products such as "muscle foods" from GNC as well as recovery guns from Hyperice and recovery sandals from Oofos.

The Combine Digital VR Experience is the most exciting, a two-sided 8-by-13-foot digital screen that will measure height, jumping ability, agility, reaction time and other metrics measured at traditional Combine events.

The store is also embracing the community through its Wall of Game, which will induct six people who have made a positive contribution to local sports in the Pembroke Pines area.

Champs Sports opens new Homefield concept

What: The iconic furniture store introduced the opportunity to purchase renewable energy for consumers starting in their home market Sweden as of September 2021. After installing solar panels for all of their locations to produce the renewable energy to sell to all of their neighboring communities.

Why is it important: The furniture store has found an innovative solution that can provide clean renewable energy to their consumers while also making a profit.

Ikea has set out to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to as low as possible from all ends of the supply chain from the raw material production to customers' disposal of their furniture by 2030.

The sustainability team at Ikea has discovered that there is a link between their climate footprint and their consumers. Around 20% of their total carbon footprint is associated to the customer usage of their products.

Their innovative solution to lower their total climate footprint while also turning a profit offers the opportunity for consumers to purchase their own solar panels to manufacture their own energy, or alternatively become a part of their renewable energy service. Upon buying the solar panels they are able to monitor and track their usage and consumers can even sell back their unused energy.

IKEA stores sell renewable energy to households in Sweden

What: The 160-sq.-meter, single floor boutique located in Florence, Italy was created using upcycled natural materials to further their sustainability strategy.

Why it is important: The store concept is based on having an overall low environmental impact, using recycled materials integrated from their floors to their mannequins.

The store was introduced to help further United Colors of Benetton's strategy to consolidate its best practices and improve the environmental and social performance throughout the supply chain.

In terms of energy usage, the Florence boutique uses 20% less energy than a typical store. A system based on small sensors, data analysis, and AI was used to enhance the energy efficiency of the points of sale.

United Colors of Benetton has recently opened a new sustainable store concept in Florence

What: In a consumer market as mature and savvy as Japan, luxury brands readily go the extra yard to raise their profile and woo clients, and Chanel is no exception.

Why it is important: Increasingly going DTC, Chanel is opening a beauty store situated right behind the Chanel flagship store on Omotesando.

Occupying a 150 sqm. (1,615 sq.ft.) unit spread across three floors of a modern structure, it has been a full makeover by the brand's in-house design team and now sees a façade dipped in white and overlaid with both sewing pattern lines and various Chanel brand names and phrases.

The ground floor offers an immersive brand experience with the full range of Chanel cosmetics, integrating the digital and physical realms, such as Beauty Recordings, which allow shoppers to save personalized videos of touch-up sessions, and Chanel Try On, a makeover tool to try on makeup virtually. Additionally, a number of specially trained beauty experts are available for eight different personalized beauty experiences, and the treatment can be booked through the Chanel Beauty House app (Japan only). Also to be found on the second floor is a pop-in space which features a rotating program of Chanel installations.

Chanel Beauty House in Tokyo

What: The Vista California location is the first ever Target Net-Zero energy store.

Why it is important: This store serves as a testing site for sustainability-minded innovations, providing learnings that will help inform future store designs.

This stores journey started in the fall of 2019 with an idea to design solar carports that, alongside rooftop solar, would help offset the store's energy use.

Upon design and implementation of these solar carports the company looked to test out a newer sustainable initiative: CO2 refrigeration, which helps to lower emissions and would eventually be selected to be rolled out in all stores by 2040.

The final redesigned store also introduced more than 1,300 LED lights, which together cut 10% off its total energy bill.

Target's first net zero energy store

What: Dior's Avenue Montaigne flagship stores reopens with additional footage, and exclusive features and services.

Why is it important: After more than two years of renovations, Dior reopens a 'universe' more than a store with facilities including an exhibition space, a high jewelry workshop, restaurants, a spa and a private suite.

The 108,000 square feet building houses Dior's largest boutique worldwide alongside La Galerie de Dior, the biggest permanent exhibition space dedicated to fashion. With rotating displays and preserved historic spaces, such as the original office of founder Christian Dior and the haute couture ateliers, which have called the building home ever since Dior inaugurated the space in December 1946.

In addition, 30 Montaigne is home to the Monsieur Dior restaurant and a Dior pastry café, housed in an atrium space. There is an alcove dedicated to beauty treatments, and finally, La Suite Dior, a private apartment whose keys give guests the full run of the building, with a dedicated staff of six to eight people around the clock, ranging from chefs to personal shoppers.

The exhibition room opens with Dior's iconic Bar jacket, in a room exploring different facets of the couturier's 10 years at the helm of the house and further rooms explore topics including the haute couture process. The gallery, which can welcome up to 335 people at a time, is expected to be fully booked every day.

Dior reopens renovated flagship store

What: Schulstrasse 17 is a showroom for technical goods and innovative start-up products, designed to merge high and low tech.

Why is it important: Tech retail is in a phase of reinvention, brands and retailers are understanding that product testing alone doesn't make a shop experience. Industry leaders including Panasonic, Google, and Apple are reconsidering their spatial-design concepts accordingly.

The new Schulstrasse 17 concept store space adopts an aesthetic similar to that of fashion retailers, heightening the desirability of spending time shopping.

Schulstrasse 17 reflects the new face of tech retail

What: Described by the brand as a 'community-driven beauty discovery hub', Glossier's first permanent location outside of the US amplifies the sensory retail experience.

Why it is important: Glossier's Covent Garden opening follows on the coattails of its 2019 activation in the English capital, one the label has called its 'most successful to date.' After unveiling a Seattle store and reopening its Los Angeles presence last year, the London shop marks a direction for Glossier's global expansion.

The design is playfully balanced between old and other modern materials and finishes, like perforated paneling and sculptural marble in Glossier's identifiable millennial-pink hue. The heart of the store is the product testing area. Mirrors are inscribed with 'You Look Good' – Glossier's confidence-boosting catchphrase. Meanwhile, a 'Wet Bar' encourages sampling of skincare and makeup.

Glossier first UK store

What: A former wholesale-only brand has ventured into physical approach with a completely new and fresh vision.

Why it is important: It is all about experience, animating community, but also blurring the boundaries between HQ teams, boutique staff and customers.

Australian-based fitness brand LKSD launched last month its first physical store on 4,000 sqm in Queensland, after a wholesale development for the past 20 years.

The store has been developed as a real epicentre for the brand: customers are able to observe management teams in video conference in glass rooms, but also gym and yoga facilities, open to both the staff and the public. This allows LKSD to organise events during the weekend and animate the brand community.

The store is a synthesis of the brand's 6 values: enjoy the journey, create a community, no-one is too good to sweep the sheds, find a better way to do it, move fast and break shit, and aim to be 1 per cent better each day.

Fitness brand LSKD first retail showroom

What: Opening its first concept store in Caen, the retailer is specialised in second-hand, repackaged electronic products such as smartphones, game consoles, iPads, Macbooks…

Why it is important: In a second-hand market that needs reassurance and trust, YesYes is committed to quality and transparency, and is elevating the shopping experience with products repackaged on-site by fifteen technicians working in front of the customers' eyes.

Brio agency supports the brand in its development by creating its first concept store, dedicated to high-tech products.

YesYes store in France

What: The Berlin beauty store transforms in a cabinet of curiosities.

Why it is important: Pushing the usual beauty retail's boundaries, MDC Next Door blends beauty with fine objects and small furnishings, offering luxury cosmetics, ceramics, jewellery and more.

Gonzalez Haase AAS's concept for MDC Next Door greatly amps up a relatively standard interior through strategic material and colour use. The mirror inserts and geometric furniture are eye candy and communicate the idea of the space being a cabinet of curiosities well. It acts as a great, Instagrammable spatial business card for visitors who may not be aware of what the greater MDC brand has to offer.

Cosmetics collective MDC in Berlin

What: In an attempt to compete with Sephora and take back a part of the lost market share, Harrods already opened 3 H Beauty stores across the UK.

Why it is important: In its prestigious Knightsbridge location, Harrods has relied heavily on spending from international tourists. Placing H Beauty outside of London gives Harrods the chance to establish itself with domestic consumers.

As affordable line The Ordinary and luxury stalwart La Prairie illustrate, H Beauty has price points suiting a vast array of consumers. "Magic Mirrors" leveraging augmented reality technology permit customers to virtually try on products and have images of their experimentation sent directly to their phones. A dedicated space with tables labelled "Play" invites interaction in the multi-brand section, where customers can have fun with hairstyling, product demos and makeup consultations. It's a beauty playground that could fuel footfall and curb losses from customers shopping online.

H Beauty transcends beauty with The Champagne Bar, a spot for customers to socialize, and enjoy Harrods' food and beverage in their backyard. A click-and-collect service, product personalization, sunglasses boutique and blow-dry bar are slated to launch soon.

H Beauty stores by Harrods

What: Ecoalf's DNA is based on design, sustainability and innovation, and the new store embodies the same core principals.

Why it is important: Sustainability, experience and design meet in the same space. A multidisciplinary room is dedicated to the ocean and to education. Using the latest digital technology, this room will immerse the customers in the ocean and share Ecoalf Foundation's journey, integrating their mission to raise awareness on the need to protect our ocean.

MatStudio, an architecture and design studio specialized in creating experiences through commercial interior design, minimized the use of materials to the maximum (reducing to just two).

Ecoalf in Paris

What: Teenagers are the target audience of beauty retailer B+Tube's Changsha flagship.

Why it is important: The shopping experience is organised in the 218 sqm store allows teens to create social media as they shop, something which helps facilitate online to offline consumption.

Iridescent perforated steel, used to build a central cathedral-like structure, is the star material of the Insta-friendly space. Covered in steel and white Corian, the auxiliary sections are organized around the three basics of cosmetics: 'cleansing, foundation and make-up'. Each area hosts an education centre for customers to learn and experiment with the products through tutorials and videos.

B+Tube's first flagship in Changsha

What:  It is now possible to experience in real conditions the quality of garments designed to support the extreme.

Why it is important:  Stores are becoming showrooms where experience is key. Department stores should either team up with the right brands or develop their own approach so that they remain relevant for experience-hungry customers.

Nike has opened a popup space in its own House of Innovation in Champs Elysées that opened in 2020 (see our review here) where customers can book a time slot to try in real conditions its range of products adapted to extreme weather.

In the simulator, customers are able to try 3 jackets in specific visual, sound and temperature conditions, and get information about the products they are trying thanks to an AR set up to which they can access while in the queue waiting for their turn. Their experience in the simulator is then recorded and sent to customers as a souvenir of the experience.

This is not the first time that brands tap on the experience to show the quality of their products: Canada Goose and Arc'teryx do the same on a permanent basis in their stores (respectively Toronto and Shanghai).

Nike opens a weather simulator to test its clothing

What: Founded by Mexican designer, pharmacist and alchemist Tatiana Torrealba, cosmetics brand The New Sanctuaries is the result of two decades of extensive exploration and experimentation.

Why it is important: Taking ample cues from ancestral knowledge, clean beauty principles, transparency, nature and technology, it's a brand that appeals to a like-minded and forward demographic of consumers.

Taking its operations to the next level, Torrealba has opened a retail space at Laguna, a redeveloped, former thread and textile factory from the 1920s in the historic downtown Cuauhtémoc neighborhood of Mexico City.

Designed by architect Francisco Pardo and Studio Fierro Architecture, a practice based in New York City, the store occupies a 28 sqm. (301 sq.ft.) ground floor unit alongside an inner courtyard, and sees a setting that alludes to The New Sanctuaries' ongoing transformation and development.

The chosen aesthetic is sophisticated, albeit rough around the edges and oozing a modern artisanal vibe.

New Sanctuaries in Mexico city

What: Founded in the late 19th century, Retterspitz is one of Germany's oldest pharmacy brands, offering a wide range of cosmetics and medical cosmetics that combine traditional healing expertise with modern standards and the latest scientific research.

Why it is important: The Retterspitz store not only offers an immersive brand experience and personal customer service, but also serves as a marketing tool to sniff out the clientele's preferences and shopping patterns.

The interior design, created by Nuremburg-based interior designer Katja Reiter, aims to offer shoppers a tranquil refuge, and primarily does so with a palette of natural materials. An abundance of marble from a quarry in nearby Eichstätt has been used to create a terraced display wall while a separate large block takes centre stage serving as a counter and which embeds a circular water basin as well.

Situated in a recessed section in the back, and crafted from contrasting dark timber, sits the so-called pharmacy room which boldly signals Retterspitz's historic legacy. However, the setting also incorporates a screen featuring promotional footage as a firm nod to the company's modern day operations.

Retterspitz in Nuremberg

What: Founded in 2018 by Spanish influencer and stylist Blanca Miró Scrimieri and entrepreneur Rafa Blanc Cumellas, Vasquiat's members-only shopping concept is as ingenious as it is disruptive.

Why it is important: Called Vasquiat Room, it's concepted as a members-only store, a three-dimensional extension of its online market place, providing customers the opportunity to explore emerging designers, and additionally, try on in the fitting room.

The store occupies a ground floor unit of a late 19th-century building, featuring an interior design that's a collaborative effort of local architecture practice GCA Architects, marketing consultancy firm This is Odd and designer Cristian Herrera Dalmau.

Vasquiat stocks a wide range of coveted women's fashion brand's and lifestyle products from Spain and abroad, including Hereu, PSC, augusta, Ganni, The Label Edition, and Walter de Silva.

Vasquiat room in Barcelona

What: Adidas opens a new "brand centre" coming on top of 2 existing ones and 76 other DOS, featuring a series of sustainable initiatives.

Why it is important: Brands are accelerating on the display of their CSR initiatives, all aiming to show, rather than simply tell, that they are active on this topic. This creates a mounting pressure on department stores which have to follow suit. The issue is that now it is not anymore only about brand offering, but building structures themselves.

Adidas launches "Adidas Brand Center Harajuku", the first sustainable concept for the brand in Japan. The store will include a sneaker cleaning and water station, LED lighting, separation management of waste, recycling construction waste during store building.

The store, which spans over 708 sqm on 3 floors, aims at being a window of Adidas capabilities and efforts when it comes to sustainability. It will also feature a 43sqm outdoor corner, which will be offering a limited range of FutureCraft Footprint, the line developed in collaboration with Allbirds.

Adidas launches a new sustainable boutique concept in Japan

What: The first collaboration between Starbucks and Amazon provides a new kind of service, addressing customers with a different temporality.

Why it is important: Starbucks has opened a pickup location in Manhattan with Amazon Go, serving both fast and slow customers missions.

Customers can order on the Starbucks app and pick up their coffee at the bar (as usual with the Pickup service from Starbucks). What is new is provided by the Amazon Go systems, with a convenience check-out free area where customers can pay with their palm or their phone. They can even just walk out, with Amazon charging them seamlessly. The goal is to remove as much friction as possible for the busiest customers so that they can be served in seconds. However, the store also caters for slower customers' needs, with a seating area and a working space with semi-private booths.

Inside the new Starbucks Amazon store