We’ve been inspired by our recent visit to BoxPark retail mall in Shoreditch, London. This retail super-hub is where you can find the future of retail design. Here’s our BoxPark Retail Mall retrospective.
Retail can be as simple as 1,2,3 if you want it to be:
1) Take a derelict piece of land
2) Place 60 shipping container on it
3) Add an eclectic mix of global brands, small independents and some places to chill and eat
What do you get? BoxPark retail mall at Shoreditch in London.
The retail mall is a great mix of the Super Brands like NIKE, with a mix of less well know retail like Smileys or Urbanears. With very limited space in each shipping container, innovative, ‘out of the box’ retail design has been utilised to create unique fun and quirky spaces to displays a wide variety of products.
Yes, the Nike execution is beautiful. The Xbox zone is fun and entertaining, but some of the low budget store design concepts such as Urbanears is just as clever but on a fraction of the budget.
We would definitely recommend a visit, from a shopping as well as a retail design perspective. There’s lots to look at and something is bound to catch your eye. It’s a simple concept, cheap rent on short term basis of 3-12 months, nothing fancy, just great retail products.
If only more landlords would adopt this attitude and let out some empty shops in the same format to get our high streets buzzing again.
The fundamental principle is that people love to shop, other people like to retail. The high street has changed and landlords need to change with it or the sad fact is we will have more empty stores and not less!
