Youth-focused footwear retailer Platypus has opened a new flagship store at Melbourne Central shopping centre.
At 600sqm, it’s more than twice the size of the next largest store and features an in-store DJ, Instagrammable photo area and over 33 footwear and accessory brands.
The store will function as a click-and-collect and click-and-dispatch centre for Platypus’s online orders in the area, and staff will be outfitted with portable POS systems, allowing them to help customers find what the store has, and order what it doesn’t.
“That’s a real change for us, it provides a quicker experience on the shop floor and checkout, [and] enables our team members and customers to have much more flexibility on the shop floor,” Accent Group chief executive Daniel Agostinelli told IR.
“From our point of view it’s allowing a better engagement with our customers to provide a real personal experience on the shop floor.”
This customer-first experience is “critical” to Platypus’s success, according to Agostinelli. If a business is unable to provide a modern retail experience it will only be able to offer the “status quo”, and the customer will move on.
One of the advantages this store provides is its extended range of product.
“If you go to many stores, you may see two or three pairs of Doc Martens. Our store has 60 lines,” Agostinelli said.
“If you go to stores that are showing five or six lines of Vans, we are showing 200 lines… [You need to showcase] many, many more products than just your great sellers. You need to have good sellers in the mix as well.”
This attitude reflect the broader bricks-and-mortar strategy for Accent Group: to engage customers with the best experience possible.
“We’re seeing great growth in our brand presence, and the larger footprint stores are allowing us to showcase more and more brands and products than we ever had before,” Agostinelli said.
“At the end of the day, you need both [online and bricks-and-mortar] to be resonating with customers if you want a business that’s going to be sustainable moving forward.”
Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.
