Online design brand Made.com has opened its new flagship 789 sqm interactive showroom in London’s Soho.
It took the Made team and architect Bureau de Change five months to transform the former bookshop to create the space, which offers a unique user experience. Inside, the space replicates the website, whilst bringing a sense of theatre for customers. Full scale ‘virtual’ products will be projected amongst a number of room set-ups, so that visitors can browse the full online selection.
Visitors will have access to multiple iMac stations to place orders. They can also use handheld CloudTags tablets to access all product information whilst browsing. Fabric samples and product postcards are also available.
Passers-by will see an intricate lighting installation puncturing the windows, like a huge nail impression toy made of 40,000 plastic tubes. This will showcase ‘pinpressions’ of Made’s most iconic products.
The company’s flagship retail space is positioned at 100 Charing Cross Road
Ning Li, co-founder and CEO, says: “Everyone is trying to find a way to link both online and physical worlds. Online, there are no square footage constraints – space is endless – so coming up with ways to showcase our full catalogue here was a challenge. We’ve achieved this by incorporating digital elements but only in ways we feel add value and are not in any way gimmicky.
“Our showrooms continue to be a testing ground for new products – we use the space as an engagement tool with customers. It’s not about the hard-sell.”
Billy Mavropoulos, architect and co-founder, Bureau de Change, says: “This is such a bustling street, with so many stores vying for your attention, we wanted to produce something unexpected - an idea that would set it apart from the traditional format of lots of products in a display.”
The new showroom has created eight new full and part time positions, and is Made's fourth physical showroom.
