Comment: Why luxury stores can be very dull

A deep-seated fear of upsetting the design applecart underpins a lesson in ennui in many luxury stores.

Walk down London’s Bond Street and for the most part what’s on view is a parade of the familiar. This is luxuryland and all of the big names are here, all of them determined to appeal to the wallets of the big spenders who walk down this lengthy thoroughfare. Yet although there’s a lot to look at, much of it is the same as everywhere else.

And without naming names, some of the biggest brands on the street look identical to stores elsewhere. If this were the mid-market, these would be regarded as flagships and efforts would be made to differentiate them from other stores. Not as a general rule at the luxury end of things however and the reason for this is simple. So much money is expended on creating luxury environments that once a template is arrived at it tends to be used everywhere. The thinking, apparently, is that in doing this there is a consistency of experience wherever the luxury shopper happens to go.

The only mild problem with this is that luxury travellers are also those most likely to roam from one big city to the next and if all they see is the same old same old, there is a very real danger that a measure of boredom will set in. This is not to say that sales will be depressed in consequence, but surely the luxury shopper craves variety, in the same way as in every other part of the retail spectrum?

H&M on New York’s Times Square shows what can be done to make things different without upsetting the design applecart. This is the “Runway” store, where shoppers can pose while walking along an in-store catwalk and then see their brief sashay on a giant screen overlooking this most central of Big Apple locations. The rest of the store is much like many other H&M stores, but enough has been done to make this mid-market flagship feel that it really is very different from the run of the mill branches.

Luxury shoppers deserve similar treatment and for the most part do not really receive it. There are of course exceptions, with Selfridges, for example, standing as a case in point. Selfridges’ success is perhaps down to the fact that is may be about luxury, but it is also about being different. Luxury brands might do well to consider this.