Store gallery: Inside Burberry’s AR-fuelled Arctic pop-up

Following the success of its AR-powered flagship store in Tokyo, and its London Brick Lane out-of-home experience, Burberry has launched a new pop-up with tech at its heart.

Drawing on the history of pioneers such as Sir Ernest Shackleton, who wore Burberry on his polar expeditions, the decor features mirrored plinths, holographic ceiling, penguins and sledges with Burberry silk scarf sails.

The wooden speakers are also a nod to chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci’s 2019 carbon-neutral runway set, which was made of an array of white speakers and gramophone horns.

The key attraction in the store is the white penguin statues, which can be brought to life on a shopper’s phone screen using augmented reality. Accessed through a QR code, the penguins can be seen to fly around the room and visitors are able to video or screenshot themselves to share on social media.

The immersive experience is intended to act as a draw to younger, less traditional luxury shoppers as Burberry aims to widen its appeal. The luxury retailer’s Selfridges’ pop-up sells limited edition colourways of its spring/summer collection, as well as more affordable products such as socks, water bottles, phone cases and card wallets, meaning more customers are catered for.

‘Special and unique’

“As with any pop-up, you want to do something energetic and exciting,” says Burberry senior vice president of digital Mark Morris. 

“We built the AR experience, ensuring it’s very easy to download. On average, people have been spending 10 minutes using the feature in-store, so it really draws people in helping them to understand the purpose of the collection.

“It also acts as a conversation starter for store associates to interact with customers, helping them use the experience and explaining the arctic theme.”

Increasing dwell time is paramount in today’s retail store and Burberry’s tech-driven proposition has received a positive response.

“We’re creating a different way of engaging with products on the journey to purchase,” says Morris.

“More broadly we’re experimenting with both the inspiration and commercial parts of the customer journey – working out how we can combine on- and offline. I don’t think its something we would do in every store – each experience should feel special and unique.”

Burberry has also recently introduced an augmented reality shopping function on Google search, where a limited number of products including a bag and trainers can be embedded in its surroundings in 3D to enhance shopper’s online and in-store browsing.

Morris told Retail Week Burberry has a test-and-learn approach to implementing AR functions across its store network and online. 

“If this AR experience works, we’ll do more of them; if the shopping AR works, we’ll roll it out with more products. I can even see us building AR into our product pages, so people can interact with the products and even buy in AR,” he says. 

The pop-up will be open in Selfridges on Oxford Street until March 29.