Beyond personalization, the Hyperphysical store uplifts the whole customer journey. The metaverse transcend boundaries between online shopping and physical stores, enabling an immersive, interactive and memorable shopping experience. Surrealist and maximalist visual merchandising and interior design in physical stores heavily influence customer experiences.
Haptic fixtures in pop-up stores can diversify digital elements to entertain, amaze and allure target customers. The visual presentation of the physical store usually boasts striking designs – bold colours, textures, and dynamic “instagrammable” displays, which help draw shoppers’ attention and immerse them.
For example, the Balenciaga store in London was wrapped with pink faux fur to market its Le Cagole handbag line. The overwhelming fluffy displays filled up the interior for a whimsical vibe in the store. Such creative and instagrammable interior designs allowed customers to engage with the brand and attracted online customers to open their eyes to the experiential store.
Another example of making offline shopping more intriguing was from Salvatore Ferragamo. They blended NFT into patronage at the Soho store, where customers could enjoy free NFT upon purchase of exclusive or made-to-order products and customization services. In contrast to Balenciaga’s maximalist store, Salvatore Ferragamo’s interior design came out “dramatic” – the Soho store was exquisitely equipped with a large curved screen display and colourful animated artwork. It showcased an entertaining and exploratory store concept. Moreover, the youth-centric considerations led to an immersive and personalized shopping experience for the young generations.
According to IBM’s Consumer Research Insight, 72% of consumers chose stores as their primary shopping location. Hence, while e-commerce has become a mainstream shopping channel and an effective tool to reach consumers, the Hyperphysical retail concept still draws online shoppers to brick-and-mortar stores.