One Retail Space, Multiple Brands: The Selfridges Corner Shop

by Elisa Wendorf

Gucci, Prada, Burberry – at the corner store? Selfridges, the UK chain of high-end department stores with its iconic landmark store on London’s Oxford Street, now has a pop-up store where customers can explore more than just luxury labels. The immensely popular Selfridges Corner Shop makes room to showcase innovative products and facilitate new collection launches at frequent intervals.

After the renovation of its flagship store in 2017, the Selfridges Corner Shop opened its doors to feature the most innovative brand collaborations in a temporary retail space setting. Paying homage to the traditional British corner shop (a small retail store that typically carries a limited selection of everyday items), the ever-changing one-stop shop showcases luxury products and invites customers to a quick pop-up experience.

Most recently, customers were able to admire the exclusive Valentino Beauty Make Up line. The Corner Shop featured huge, over-sized detailed replicas of the new Beauty products.

Prior to this, the sustainable fashion brand PANGAIA utilized the retail space to feature a limited pop-up installation that offered an interactive and immersive experience that explored colors and shapes to showcase the products, brand concept and the company’s high-tech naturalism approach.

The Selfridges Corner Shop also makes room for unique brand collaborations. The luxury fashion house Gucci partnered up with outdoor retailer The North Face to launch a campaign that celebrates the spirit of exploration, self-discovery, and freedom. The models presented the exclusive collection against a breath-taking scenic backdrop. The message: sustainable functional clothing meets chic designer fashion. For the Selfridges Corner Shop campaign, the designers featured the collection's bright floral patterns to light up the facade of the Corner Shop.

Last year, department store visitors were able to enjoy the debut of Prada’s Re-Nylon Collection. The trailblazing project was launched as part of “Project Earth”, the Selfridges initiative which highlights the company’s commitment to sustainability.

The iconic British luxury brand Burberry took over the retail space of Selfridges Corner Shop to celebrate its rich history. The design was influenced by the time Burberry was founded – the Victorian era and mixed innovative techniques with classic fabrications and silhouettes like cinched waists and elaborate sleeves. Store visitors were privy to an augmented reality and interactive exploration experience.

The pop-up store concept is a popular trend in large cities. The temporary retail space and setup is an ideal platform to creatively highlight products, corporate culture and philosophy. You also offer your customers an exciting, interactive brand experience – by using augmented reality, light displays, background music, scents and so much more. For retailers, this innovative touchpoint is the key to success as it immerses customers in your brand.

Thanks to its central location and traditional “corner shop vibe”, Selfridges Corner Shop gives brands the chance to grab the attention of passersby and attract new customers. What’s more, taking up residency in The Corner Shop at Selfridges is an innovative way to increase brand awareness. The fact that these pop-ups are temporary events that can only be explored for a limited time drives exclusivity and uniqueness and creates a sense of urgency for customers to buy and not miss out.