Topshop Australia has opened the doors to its largest store in the southern hemisphere at Melbourne’s Emporium.
Located in Melbourne’s CBD at the newly opened Emporium shopping complex, the 2700sqm store is the third store to open in Melbourne. Topshop is operated locally by Next Athleisure in Australia and has five stores in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.
“What you see here is what you’re going to see when Fifth Avenue opens in New York and what you see at The Grove in LA, it really does take on a whole new level of design,” Sonia Bettega, MD of Topshop/Topman Australia, told Inside Retail.
“We have really made sure that the store speaks to Melbourne. When you look at the range and look at the imagery it’s very stylish and it’s very Melbourne.”
The UK-based brand was one of the first fast fashion chains to arrive in Australia, following hot on the heels of Spanish retailer, Zara, with a 1300sqm Topshop and Topman store at the Jam Factory on Melbourne’s Chapel St in 2011.
Spread across three levels, Topshop Emporium houses the complete offering of both Topshop womenswear and Topman’s menswear ranges, as well as its latest collections in footwear, basics, suiting, denim, makeup, and accessories, plus its Tall, Petite, Unique, and Boutique collections.
“Topman sometimes gets left out of the conversation and I think the guys are really going to be impressed when they see the extent of the offer in Topman, which also includes our recently launched sportswear range.”
Topshop Emporium will also provide a a free personal shopping service.
Bettega says one of the store’s main highlights is the use of imagery, adding the company has left digital to a minimal instore to focus on offering a more personalised shopping experience.
“We follow our lead from the UK so they haven’t necessarily incorporated a digital experience instore but what they do have is really great imagery and really great creative.
“I think there’s a lot of retailers today that use digital instore but does it get used by customers? I think that’s questionable. We don’t want to be gimmicky if we’re going to do something like that then it needs to have a purpose.
“We definitely use [digital] in terms of our operations and processors, but in terms of the customer experience it’s about having a really personal experience as opposed to interacting with your iPhone and your iPad. We’re always exploring ways where we can introduce digital into our retail environment but we want to make sure when we do it is setting a standard that has not yet been seen in Australia and that it serves a real purpose.”
Topshop Australia will now shift its focus to opening the brand’s first store in Perth, with construction commencing today.
“It’s full steam ahead and we will be opening our Perth store on October 30,” Bettega said.
