CASE STUDYWORLD OF WHISKYS RETAIL DESIGN

PROJECTOVERVIEW

CLIENT

World of Whiskies

PRODUCT

Premium Whiskies

LOCATIONS

Heathrow Terminal 4

BRIEF

To re-invigorate the World of Whiskies

specialist retail concept.

THESOLUTION

Personal discovery was the chosen

theme behind the concept. By demys-

tifying whisky and creating theatre in

store with four areas, we would not

only reinvigorate the space but inspire

current customers and attract new.

An interactive ‘Discovery Bar’ featuring

the latest RFID technology is the

focal point of the store, along with a

striking barrel wall in a nod to whisky

production methods.

RENDER TOREALITY

PRESS

1 Frontier 2 FX 3 The Moodie Report

4 newdesign 5 total retail 6 World

Interior Design Network.

FIT FORSlowly but surely, airport retail is changing. Marek Kolasinski finds out how design ideas in the sector are changing the way customers shop

I t is undeniable that the retail environment in today’s world is highly competitive. With an ever-increasing range of brands and prod-

ucts, it is a wonder customers know where to go and what to choose. And yet they do – and in an increasingly savvy way. With the advent of the internet and the Digital Age, we are bombarded every day by promotional messages, sounds, pic-tures, colours, offers and counter-offers. Our brains have to sift through that cloud of informa-tion to single out those elements that are most relevant and interesting to us and what we are looking for. And what we retain is what tends to stand out.

Hence the importance of design – and all its components – in attracting the potential custom-ers into the shop, convincing them that there is something for them, even if they do not know quite yet what it is. After all, 70% of buying de-cisions are made on the spot. So creating that eye-catching design that will set your store apart from all the others and make the passerby curious about what you may be offering him/her is all the more important.

This is even truer in the airport environment: firstly, because the relatively limited space avail-able for retail means there is potentially a higher concentration of outlets with more choice of both

brands and products; and secondly, because – de-spite what some would like to believe – passen-gers still go to an airport primarily to travel, not to shop. With penetration figures still under 50% for most airports, and in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, it is vital to fully understand how best to lure the passengers in, and to ascertain which elements help alert them to the available opportunities.

MAY 2010 FRONTIER | 55

DESIGN | Fit for Purpose

PURPOSE

(Main image) World

of Whiskies at T4,

Heathrow Airport;

(above) the Absolut

Tropics bar and display

at Barcelona Airport

38 www.totalretailmagazine.com

way that other retailers that use theSysrepublic solution had been able towork to prioritised to-do lists, allowingthe team to plan its day around the keyhits from alerts in the system.’

Culleton continues: ‘In the first fewweeks we were seeing a large number of‘exceptions’ within the system, which hasalready paid for itself. Refunds were ahot spot for us, and the growing use ofelectronic gift cards has presented a newproblem, with the challenge ofimplementing fraud protection thatdoesn’t impact transaction time. Securehas achieved this. We set a tolerancelevel for transactional activities in our keyrisk areas, and the system applies theseas rules.’ HMV has also been able toensure that operational compliance isbeing adhered to, for example, makingsure that promotions are being runcorrectly at the till, and HMV is receivingthe correct margin.

Battling queues has always been anissue for retailers. Kevin Hickson,Tensator’s general manager and residentretail expert, says retailers can make theirqueue systems work harder in currenttrading conditions, with the introduction

From payment systems to securitydevices, stock control to displayscreens, the world of technology ishelping retailers get the most out oftheir businesses.

Sheridan & Co has used RFIDtechnology in its new store concept forWorld of Whisky. Drawing on consumerinsight, Sheridan & Co created an overalltheme for the store of discoveringwhisky. On entering the store shopperssee the ‘Discover Your Taste’ bar wherethey are encouraged to sit down andsample a variety of whiskies to find theone that they like. This process is aidedby the use of RFID technology thatdisplays information on screens when thecustomer picks up a bottle from the backwall, and headphones are used tocommunicate with the shopper.

HMV has already reduced fraudfollowing the implementation of Secure,a hosted loss prevention solution fromSysrepublic. Colin Culleton, head of riskand loss prevention at HMV, explains:‘Our old system only flagged up basictransaction exceptions, with furtherinterrogation requiring searches via dualdatabases. We were impressed by the

of intelligent management solutions. The company has developed a suite ofcost-effective dispersed queuing systemsfor the industry in response to marketdemand: these not only help improvecustomer service levels, increase queueflow and optimise available resources,but also improve revenue generation.Building on the popular range of singleline call forward queuing systems, thisnew portfolio of user-friendly dispersedqueue ticketing systems are powered byTensator’s technology partner ESii.

‘Ideal in environments where there area number of service positions or pointsof sale areas available, the systems allowmultiple transactions to be handled morefairly ensuring that the customer isserved in a timely manner and by themost appropriate member of staff,’explains Hickson. There are various levelsavailable, and each system canincorporate digital media and signage, sothat retailers can display videoentertainment messages and open upadditional revenue streams via third partyadvertising, enabling the dispersedqueue management system to in effectpay for itself.

How far retail has come with the use of technology. We look at some of the latest

innovations to aid retailers in their day-to-day business.

Touch of a button

TR.0912.038-041 LH.qxd 2/12/09 11:24 am Page 38

RESULTS

Following the opening of the store

there was an initial 20% uplift in sales.

The store was described on The

Moodie Report as “the best whisky

environment in the world.”

OUR COMPANY

COMPANY NAME

Sheridan&Co

WEBSITE

www.sheridanandco.com

ADDRESS & NUMBERS

Head Office

+44 (0)1858 468 000Market Harborough

Riverside

Market Harborough

Leicestershire

LE16 7PT

UK

London

+44 (0)20 7486 749910A Blandford Street

London

W1U 4AZ

UK

New York

+1 212 625 166684 Wooster Street

Suite 703

NY, NY 10012

USA

COMPANY REGISTRATION

NUMBER

1720277

TYPE OF ORGANISATION

Privately owned company

TYPE OF ORGANISATION

Michael Sheridan: CEO & Founder

Julien Sheridan: Sales &

Communication Director

John Dupuis: President-

US Market

OFFICE LOCATIONS

Sheridan&Co has offices in

London and New York with an

affiliate office in Shanghai.

HQ, logistics and manufacturing

sites are located in Market

Harborough.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

80 worldwide