These are the most inspiring retail concepts in the world (part 1)

Where can you find the world’s most inspiring shops and retail concepts? What does the future of retail design bring? For our RetailHunts, I am constantly on the lookout for special concepts, so I am happy to take you around the world in a mini summer series featuring the coolest shops, concepts or things.

1. Choosebase Shibuya, Tokio

Multi-brand shops are back: with more people shopping online, a new shopping experience – called OMO – is gaining popularity. OMO stands for “Online-Merge-Offline” and is a shopping experience that connects online and offline systems, allowing customers to shop seamlessly.

This form of shopping is certainly on the rise in Japan and seems to be particularly catching on in the Shibuya neighbourhood, which has changed dramatically in recent years. Choosebase Shibuya is a new shop of major department store SEIBU and opened in September 2021 in the area between Loft and MUJI. This is SEIBU’s first OMO department store and its modern, contemporary design appeals especially to young people.

2. THAT Concept Store, Dubai

THAT Store in Dubai does not count in sales per square metre, but in dreams and wonder. Every week the shop is updated. Creativity, niche products and young emerging brands are things that are often missing from a mall, because – at least according to traditional performance metrics – they do not generate enough sales. To guarantee an avant-garde eye-catcher, Mall of the Emirates operator Majid Al Futtaim himself opened an impressive 4,500 sqm concept shop over two floors.

The concept store unites 250 regional and international brands, from interior accessories to exclusive jewellery, on one shop floor. Make-up and clothes can be tried on with smart mirrors, while a DJ sets the tone. There are also eleven services to enhance the experience: a gym, a nail studio (Nail THAT) and an art gallery. The THAT app provides Majid Al Futtaim with the ‘missing data link’: the mall’s manager has insight into its consumers, can track their doings and get direct sales figures.

3. Ziving Ortodencia, Valencia

Who says going to the dentist cannot be fun? Retailers can also learn a lot from the service sector: in Valencia, Ziving creates “a magical world of orthodontics” entirely tailored to children. They can experience a unique adventure that they will remember, and not in the traumatic sense: at Ziving Valencia, there are rockets taking off, workshops and play corners for big and small. By the way, parents can also go there for a check-up or treatment, while the children imagine themselves to be astronauts or princesses.

4. Beba, Berlijn

You can not produce more locally and with a shorter chain than at Beba in Berlin. Inspired by centuries-old Jewish dishes from around the world, the restaurant with catering service serves bold flavours with homemade jams, syrups, pickled vegetables and chutneys. The leafy vegetables and herbs are home-grown, and you can take that quite literally.

In collaboration with Infarm, Beba has a vertical mini-farm in its restaurant. In the former Martin-Gropius-Bau museum, heads of lettuce and spinach grow in front of you in greenhouses. They go straight from the greenhouse to your plate, guaranteed kosher.

5. UGG Feel Ho(u)se, Seoul

A shop that is simultaneously virtual and physical? It can be done, as UGG proved with its pop-up shop in Seongsu-dong, a fashion centre popular with young people in eastern Seoul. Last year, UGG released a genuine virtual collection on Korean metaverse and chat platform Zepeto: users (or at least their avatars) can now also dress up online with the Australian brand’s woolly boots or fleece jumpers.

To celebrate, the label launched pop-up shops in four different locations: in New York, in Chengdu, in Seoul and on Zepeto itself. The concept, called “Feel House” or “Feel Hose” in Asia, aimed to provide a “multisensory community space”, where you can try on clothes both real and virtual and, of course, take lots of social media snapshots.

Want to discover the most inspiring shopping concepts yourself? Our RetailHunts can fuel the innovation of your own plans and business. In October, for example, we will take three different groups to Seoul, Asia’s “capital of cool” and the vibrant capital of South Korea.