Contents

1. Concept store introduction

(Examples)
2. Explanation of concept stores
• Product
• Price
• Experiments
• Product display
• Promotions
3. Concept store and customer experience
(examples)
4. Future of customer experience
5. Summary
6. Bibliography

Divyansh Raj Verma

Concept stores
The concept store is, by definition, a place where new thoughts are assembled in an offered to
improve the customer experience and offer more stuff.
The concept stores sell products that are carefully selected according to the theme of the store.
The products can be of different use but they belong to the same theme, for example, there
could be a store selling books and clothes, and it can also be a café at the same time. These
stores inspire people to follow a certain lifestyle. They give customers an unforgettable
experience through their ambiance, variety of products, décor, and services. They are
inspirational and target a specific group of customers.
Often concept stores are confused with flagship stores. Flagship stores are owned by a brand
and, they are set up to create a better brand image and strengthen the brand. These stores
provide a multisensory customer experience with the use of aesthetics and interactive
elements. While concept stores are set up to give the customer a unique customer experience
and generate profit.
To understand better we can look at some top concept stores in India.

The project café, Ahmedabad

The project café is a one of its kind
business, they have collaborated with
more than 150 artists across the globe
to build this business. The specialty of
this café is everything inside this café
is for sale, whether it is a table, chair,
painting or a candle stand. They have
collaborated with designers painters,
musicians, chefs and dancers to create
this innovative space where a
customer can experience dining in the
premises of an art gallery.
1. The Project Cafe
It started as an experiment with art, music, food, and business in Ahmedabad. the café is based
on the Bohemian theme where everything is simple and charismatic. Owners have
collaborated with Boho artists to source the art from Europe, they have built a symbiotic
relationship with this enterprise model.
The café hosts Charcha Nights, Kavi Sammelan and many events where prominent artists
of the city are invited. It is because of these events the café has come to be known as detectable
and vibrant meeting spot of creative people of the city.
The project café has three branches; The Project Café: Yellow House No.7 in Ahemdabad, The
Project Café: Deewani in haveli North Goa and, The Project café: Goa.

Jugmug thela, Delhi

Jugmug thela was started as a chai and coffee shop in a small street of South Delhi, from the
very first day they started to get requests from customers for their chai masala and
handmade munchies. Customers were so delighted with the service, ambiance and, food
that they used to sit there for hours.

Divyansh Raj Verma

In the year 2015, the owners of jugmug
thela decided to take the store to the
next level. They introduced wooden
toys, books, bakery products, tea, and
coffee to there menu, which was well
received by the visitors. The store is
based on the Indian street theme from
60’s.
There is a special corner in the store
where readers can enjoy books with
2. Jugmug Thela
exotic tea and, the specialty is they can
exchange their books with the books already in the store. Store deals in almost every piece of
art available in there, along with it they deal in spices made from natural herbs of India and
aesthetic Indian street food.
The customer experience is amazing, jugmug thela had made it possible for customers to
experience the delightfulness of sitting in the corner of a street, and sipping from a cup of hot
Indian chai with the fragrance of freshly cut grass and lemon.

Basanti: Kapde aur koffee, DLF Metropilis Gurugram

It’s a totally a new concept to combine
a boutique with a coffee place,
Basanti: Kapde aur Koffee is one such
place where you can find everything a
woman wants to wear in ethnic
fashion. From beautifully
embroidered sarees to lehenga with
fine work of pearls, and floral printed
dupatta with plain salwar and kameez,
everything in this store follows a
minimalistic theme. Even the 3. Basanto: Kapde aur Koffee
arrangement of clothes and in-décor is
minimal. There are two cute tables and a small place for having coffee with some light snacks.
Clothes there are sourced directly from different fashion designers of India, and they have
their own designers and stylists who will give you a makeover with the clothes you buy. They
have set-up their own café inside the store so if the customer is tired of going through different
sections she can freshen up with a cup of latte.
The whole ambiance gives a very simple look, the clothes are arranged on sleek steel rods,
there are two very long mirrors on the back wall, the whole room is painted with off-white with
a tint of brown, lights are soothing, and coffee with toast adds the cherry on the cake. This
whole new concept of food with clothes and styling is new to India, and it opens a whole new
dimension of retail experience for customers.

Serendipity, Delhi
It is an old haveli restored by Kuldeep Kaur, the mind behind the beautiful Rooftop café,
this is a concept store located in the lush green area of Mehrauli. The theme of the store is
‘travel and living’, and as it suggests the products in the store are sourced from various parts
of world. Kuldeep Kaur has a 20 years of experience in space design and travel, all the products
in store are inspired by the recollection of her memory from travel.

Divyansh Raj Verma

 Essentially a lifestyle store, Serendipity retails linen,
soft furnishings, clothes, and furniture, under its own
label. Everything is designed, produced and retailed
in-house, and displayed
in the most innovative
fashions. The concept
store itself houses over 7
rooms, and each room
has on display different
products, including
5. Serendipity
linen, jewellery, cushion
and duvet covers, baby clothing and bedding, women's fashion,
and bespoke furniture. The clothes and linen all follow a deeply
Indian aesthetic, so think cottons with paisley, and Indian motifs
and designs. As for furniture, think diwans, four poster high
beds, babies' cots, tables, and ottomans. They'll be happy to
customise and tweak any piece on display to suit your needs, but 4. Kuldeep Kaur
our bet is you'll want to just replicate the room you see.
Besides the retail space, Serendipity is also
happy to have you rent their giant
headquarters for events. The only
restriction: it has to be in the creative space.
Budding designers, artists, and musicians
alike, if you're looking at a private, enclosed
and gorgeous space to host a showing or
exhibition, I have to say this one's a front
runner. If you want to get people in the
mood, and host a soiree, they'll be able to
hook up a temporary license for you to serve
alcohol. As in the rest of the capital, music
6. a bedroom in serendipity is allowed until 12am. Extending their
repertoire beyond events and retail, they're also starting Sunday brunches every weekend,
featuring a new menu every week. We hear Organic lunches take centre stage at least once a
month; so starving artists no more.

The room therapy, Hyderabad

Interior designer Sona Reddy launched her own
concept store in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. The store gives
a complete solution for interior design, providing
exceptional quality products, and exquisitely designed
products at affordable prices. The store, designed by
Reddy herself, has interiors that project subtle imageries.
It has interesting feature walls, high ceilings, iron
Corinthian pillars, and industrial chandeliers, lights and
accessories. Each wall has been decorated with
distinctive elements that create a statement on itself. One
of the walls, almost 12ft high, adorns old drawers as
shelves with varied decor products on display. The main
chandelier at the entrance is made of mesh and 300
bulbs, not only is it striking, it emulates what Room
7. the room therapy
Therapy is all about.

Divyansh Raj Verma

This home décor store is a collection of
mirrors, paintings, vases, cushions, photo
frames, clocks, trunks, and furniture. Then
there’s the unique wall with drawers nailed
both vertically and horizontally on it. They
form shelves for the various products the store
offers. Each product in the store is handpicked
by the Sona herself, she says the store
represents her architectural style. Each room
of the store is differently weighted, this is to
give each room a different theme. 8. Sona Reddy in the room therapy

Room Therapy, spread over two floors, has products curated from across the country and the
world, which Sona has picked up from Indonesia, China, and Europe. There are bookends
from Indonesia sharing space with painted, wooden artwork from northern China. Sona has a
fascination with birds, that explains the birds flying out of the cage paintings on the wall of
each room. The furniture in the store is designed by Sona and crafted by local craftsman, little
mistakes that occur during the manufacturing process gives a unique look to each piece
crafted, says Sona. The store also hosts the art exhibitions and stage events on the second
floor, almost any day you can spot a celebrity in the store.

Concept store: explained

• Products
A concept store sells a variety of products, often provide a combination of services which
are totally unrelated to each other, but with a synchronization of the theme. we can find a
single store is selling clothes, furniture, food, and is also hosting art galleries and events.
This is a totally new concept in our developing nation and most of the market is unaware
of this. Mostly, these stores source their products from different designers and artists but
sometimes these stores are owned by a specific multidisciplinary designer who designed
the space, interiors, and clothes and sells them under one roof.
Products which are sold inside these stores are high quality, store owners never risk the
quality of products, because the whole marketing of the store is based on the quality and
theme which they provide. Owners mix the business with hosting of events, which is a great
part of marketing.
They believe is selling a lifestyle, Sometimes the product which they are selling is a very
common one but due to the art element attached to that product its value increases, and
the customer gets to enjoy the lifestyle which he seeks. The services these stores provide
are also finest and they evoke a sense of lifestyle the store is promoting.

• Price
Price is a very important part of the market, if a product is not priced according to laws of
economics then it generally fails in the market. But, this concept of pricing doesn’t apply
to concept stores. The products which you will find in here are priced much higher than
the products you find in a general store. This is because the store doesn’t target the mass
market, these stores target specific strata of society which can afford these products and
services.
Since the products are custom made and each product is completely different from other,
they have almost no competition in the market. Moreover, sometimes the stores are set up

Divyansh Raj Verma

 by high-end designers which have their own regular customers base and their major
revenue comes from those regular customers.
Sometimes these stores sell actual artifacts like, weapons used in popular wars, articles
which belong to some famous personalities, paintings made by great artists. These items
have a story connected to it and then when a customer buys the item he actually pays for
the story and emotions that come along with the product.

• Experiments
Many stores take up a theme and then experiment with the store offerings. some stores
like Jugmug Thela and Basati provide a range of products, and they even combine the
products according to the theme of the store. Jugmug Thela which is street style tea shop
also sells the herb and spices, bakery products, books, they even organize ‘chai pe
charcha’ which is a debate. Basanti is another example, the store is a boutique which is
inspired by the bohemian theme also sells coffee and snacks.
This concept of intermixing the product is really trending, people are liking this space
where they get to see a wide range of high-end products arranged with synchronization.
This kind of experiments help the store to gain popularity by creating a next level customer
experience which people have never seen before and they want to experience.
This type of arrangements inside stores also makes the customer spend more time inside
the store, he get involved into various activities. customer enjoys the experience and
prefers to come back again.

• Product display
Concept stores leverage new methods to exhibit products. Rather
than categorizing products in the store, concept stores tend to mix
the categories and put the object in action. Whereas traditional
stores have several exemplars of the same products and display
them vertically, concept stores limit the number of exemplars and
also use horizontal surfaces to display them.
Products displayed in synchronisation with other articles look more
interactive and doesn’t give the feel of a shop, moreover it looks like
the products are simply placed like they are kept at home. This give
a more natural aesthetic sense to the viewer. 9. product display of a
dining
• Promotion
Creative window display: Creative and appealing window displays are an art form and
can be an important way to advertise promotions for concept stores. Window displays can
be anything you want them to be. You can recreate an exotic location, make a political
statement, be humorous or anything in between. The options are limitless. What’s
important, however, is to make sure that your window display clearly conveys what your
business sells or the theme you are offering in your store.
Hold events: Giving customers a unique experience at your store can help bring more
people in the door and, ideally, boost sales. Holding a holiday party, a themed event or a
class can be a way to entertain and or educate clients about your products or services. If
the event is successful, you can count on more people coming to the next one, making this

Divyansh Raj Verma

 a powerful promotional idea for retail stores. If done correctly, holding events is one of the
more effective ways to demonstrate customer appreciation.
Leverage Social Media: Social media is a great platform to promote your store, due to
the great reach of the internet, this is the channel where you will find maximum traffic. To
promote your product over social media, stores target those platforms where they can find
their audience because a concept store only targets a specific section of society they do
promote themselves everywhere.
Twitter is the most common social media where higher income group could be easily
found and its most popular site in the world. Twitter has the official account of many
celebrities so they can directly promote the stores they are associated with then and there.
Instagram is also very popular these days, many top designers like Manish Malhotra and
Sabyasachi Mukherjee have there official accounts on Instagram in which they regularly
post pictures from their latest collection and store.
Starting a YouTube channel: Owners of these high-end stores hire professional
videographers to make promotional videos. Videos are more interactive than pictures and
obviously, we can cover more information in a video document than in a photograph or
article. They release the information about the products and what kind of lifestyle they are
inspired from, this creates a hype in the market about unique offerings of the store.
These videos are then released on YouTube channels and various other platforms on the
internet. There is no investment in releasing the videos on the internet, on the other hand,
if the video is trending then website pays the owner.

Concept stores and customer experience

Argos, a concept store in the UK has introduced
a totally new concept in customer experience.
They have installed a new system which is known
as click to collect. Click to collect is a new
service in which the customer can order for the
product from his location using a smartphone
application, and then collect the same product
directly from the store. This has reduced the time
of searching for the appropriate product in the
store.
10. Inside view of a Argos store The store has replaced the laminated catalogs
with the iPads which can be used to navigate the
products in-store and watch full disruptive videos. Digital screens are installed inside the store
for promotions and visual merchandising. Better visuals and interactive features in the store
have attracted more people.
The mode of the transaction has completely shifted towards the online payments through
mobile wallets and UPI. Biometric systems are installed, so the customer does not have to
carry any wallet with him, he can directly pay by logging in the merchant website.

Divyansh Raj Verma

 Made.com, a popular e-commerce portal
which deals in furniture has opened a
concept store in the US. The store is having a
unique way of interacting with customers
who are anxious about buying a product
online.
The customers have to book an appointment
before visiting the store, the entry inside the
11. Instore view of Made.com store is only possible with a code which is
provided on mobile phone. This helps the store to track the number of visitors. After entering
inside the store, visitors are provided with tablets and they have to scan the products on
display for ordering online. The store doesn’t sell anything it only displays products to
customers so they can be satisfied with the product quality.
The Flowerboy Project in Los Angeles is a concept flower studio opened by a Jamaican
designer Sean Knibb. The store has beautiful curated flowers, pastries, coffee, gifts, wearables,
and design trinkets. Knibb with his two designer friends, Raan Parton, and Lindsay Parton,
have curated everything available inside the store.
The store is completely different from a traditional grab-and-go flower shop, it not only sells
flowers but also provides café experience at the same time. The flower shop is more of a
hangout space for youngsters and artists. The flower café follows a Venetian theme.
Cha Bar in New Delhi is among the best cafes in
India for bookworms where you can grab a book,
pick a comfortable spot, and binge your favourite
food. The fascinating interiors compliment the
nerdy aura with a simple white and blue
decoration and a quiet atmosphere that is
essential for reading. One will find here books of
every kind ranging from history to fantasy to
12. Cha Bar biography. Talking about their menu, they have
around 60 different kinds of teas, ice creams, and tantalizing food items including Bun Kebabs,
Fish n Chips, Chicken, Smoked Barbecue Sausages, and Muffins among others, making Cha
Bar the best of all-rounder book cafes in Delhi.
The books there are provided by the Oxford bookstore. The cafe welcomes the visitors with
different themes every week. I myself have visited the café many times and this place never
fails to surprise me. Every week this café hosts a book reading.
Conclusion: The main understanding from these examples is that the concept stores create
a pleasing environment for customer by the use of technology, flattering of services and high-
quality products. Shopping is a very tiring activity for some people, but due to this whole new
customer experience market even the most reluctant people enjoy to shop.
Due to the digitalization of shopping customer gets the information about the product very
easily, it also makes promotion, storytelling, and showcase much enjoyable. Involvement of
Brands with Concept store develops a trust towards the store, as the brand name has its own
value and a brand commits to provide the best quality products to its customers. Features like
click to collect and real-time delivery increase the convenience. Customer service in these
stores is face to face which is a very important part of the market and very few business
provide this.

Divyansh Raj Verma

Over all, these customer oriented concept stores belong to the new generation of market where
a seller can only survive if he shows full commitment towards the customer. The new market
is all about customer experience.

Future of customer experience

In year 2017 many retails chains were shut down, from the study conducted by ‘Forbes’ people
we got to know that the retailers which were shutdown did not invest in customer experience,
and thus lost business. Still the out of top 10 retailer in the world, 9 are those who deals in
offline retailing and invest large part of income into customer experience. This means people
still enjoy the activity of shopping.
According to the current trends the retailers who are investing and who will continue to invest
in customer experience will become the market leaders in future. For improvement of
customer experience customer feedback is very important.
There are three strategies which will help retailers improve the future of customer experience.
1. Simplify and enhance the customer journey

Today the most annoying thing about shopping is, it requires a lot of time. The journey
of a customer with a brand starts when the customer buys a product from that brand,
and this journey continues till the time customer doesn’t separate himself from that
product. During this time if the customer faces problems because of poor service, poor
in-store treatment, or defective product then he may never return to buy another
product from that brand, but on the other hand if the product delivers what he
expected, the service provided by the brand is also good then the customer will return
to that brand again.

In today's competitive market the store/brand should focus on how to save customer’s
precious time, how deliver the customer a quality product with all the required services
which a customer is expecting. Also, the brand should focus on how to make the
shopping simpler for a customer. This is the need of the hour because the market is so
competitive that the customer will easily get a wonderful deal from any brand but what
he actually wants (easy understanding, high quality, on-door service, and hassle-free
claims) is delivered by very few sellers.

2. A different in-store experience

Today’s customer is seeking the never before in-store experience. When people enter
into a store the way they are welcome, the way they are treated by the salesperson, and
how polite was the staff with the customer, all this comes under the in-store experience.
All the stores in the world treat the customer well, but what extra a store can provide
to the customer is the real challenge. Otherwise, a buyer can easily buy any product
from e-commerce portals.

This can already be seen with the rise of concept stores which go far beyond traditional
retail, bringing in everything from food options to personal services. A good example
of this in action is Adidas “stadium retail concept” in its flagship store. The store
includes juices and snacks for sale, a personal fitness consult area, and a place to
customize shoes and clothing.

Divyansh Raj Verma

 To provide a unique in-store experience customer feedback is very important, various
means are used to gather customer feedback. For example, some stores have a little
bell hanging on the door and when the customer gets satisfied with the service he can
ring that bell. There are other more technical means installed like iPads ate installed
in stores to gather the customer feedback. All this feedback is important to train the
staff so the customer can get finely tuned experience inside the store.

3. Hyper-personalisation

This term means that the store gets personalised according to the consumer. This is a
very complex and tough task that is right now only provided by very few retailers
around the world. We can understand the hyper-personalisation with the help of a
situational example.

Suppose you go to a electronic store to buy a 4g mobile phone with 12MP of camera
and 6 GB of ram, but it took you almost an hour to make the seller understand what
you want. At the end you bought the phone you wanted but it took a lot of time. All this
time could be saved if seller already knew what you wanted to buy on the first place,
this is hyper-personalisation.

Online stores provide applications in our smart phones, these applications record our
searches and send the data to those online portals. On the basis of collected
information we get notification about upcoming products, advertisements, and offers.
This process is difficult when we come to offline retailing because people search
internet much more than they visits a store, whenever we search internet our search is
recorded and information is sent to online portals.

Some offline retailers have tried setting-up a system through which the information
about the customer could be gathered and used for making the in-store experience
more personalised, more useful. They are proved successful in creating a personalised
in-store experience.

Summary
With the introduction of concept stores Indian market has opened its doors to a new
dimension of customer experience. So far these stores have been successful in delivering
unique services. The way a customer gets treated inside the store is totally different from
traditional market experience.
They target the multiple senses of the customer to attract him inside the store, organization of
events in the store is a part of engaging the customer into lifestyle activity. This also increases
the popularity of the store.
These stores provide high-quality products, which are customized according to the needs of
the consumer. This customization experience is delightful. They also pay attention to the
packaging of the product and provide the most suitable packaging according to the occasion.
The aftersales service provided by these stores are highly personalized, they provide the service
at your doorsteps. The customer can enjoy the hassle-free environment as servicemen can
come to there the place to replace the product.

Divyansh Raj Verma

These stores are getting highly personalized, because of the limited audience they are able to
pay special attention to the specific needs of a consumer. This makes the customer happy, and
he becomes loyal the store
They have simplified their shopping procedure to provide maximum comfort. Customer easily
gets the information about the product, they even provide training session if needed, and
finding a product inside the store has become very easy because of this change.
The setup inside the stores is soothing for eyes because products are placed in synchronization
with each other. Because of the synchronized arrangements shop doesn’t feel like a shop
anymore. Rather, it gives the feeling of a museum or art studio.
These concept stores are the future of customer experience and retailing. Their main idea is to
make the shopping an enjoyable experience for the buyer. And with the introduction of
technology and service they are reaching the new heights of the market.

Divyansh Raj Verma

Bibliography
• The traveller magazine
• Theinsider-trands.com
• Forbes.com
• Jugmuj Thela, Delhi - 011 4056 7473
• The Room Therapy, Hyderabad - 084999 79400
• Basanti: kapde aur coffee, Gurugram - 085274 97781
• Serendipity, Delhi
• Thetrendland.com
• Yourtravelguide.com

Divyansh Raj Verma