Burberry launches its first social retail store

British luxury fashion retailer Burberry launches its first social retail store in Shenzhen, China, powered by Tencent technology. “A store of tomorrow for today,” Burberry’s first social retail store beautifully blends the physical and social worlds, offering a digitally immersive retail experience.

The Burberry social retail store takes interactions from social media and brings them into a physical retail environment. Through a dedicated WeChat mini programme, customers can unlock exclusive content and personalised experiences and share them with their communities.

The store comprises a series of spaces for customers to explore. Each has its own concept and personality and offers a unique interactive experience. Drawing upon Burberry’s rich heritage, the store celebrates the house codes, including the Trench Coat, Thomas Burberry Monogram, Nature and the Burberry Animal Kingdom.

As Burberry launches its first social retail store, chief creative officer, Riccardo Tisci, said, “I am fascinated by the balance between nature and technology, and the energy that connects the two. This store explores this relationship, blending the digital and the physical realms in an exciting new concept. I wanted to bring this love of the outdoors to life through all the elements of the store, which can be seen in the Burberry Animal Kingdom prints in the café as well as in the fully immersive Trench Experience and even in the small details of the design materials. I really wanted to draw upon these familiar house codes to bring our community together in an interactive journey of discovery.”

Spanning 5,800 sqft, the store features 10 rooms offering a truly interactive experience, with features including an interactive window that reflects the viewer’s shape and responds to body movement, creating a unique moment that can be captured and shared with friends. The interactive window also evolves through the seasons to reflect the latest collections and house codes. In addition, all products in the store are labelled with QR codes that connect to digital screens, further enhancing the in-store experience.

As a celebration of the signature Burberry trench coat, the Trench Experience room is designed as a digitally immersive journey through nature, bringing Burberry’s heritage of exploration to life and creating unique and personal content for the customer to share on social media.

Further, the store has a café named after founder Thomas Burberry, the Thomas’s Café – a dedicated space for the Burberry community to connect. Nature and Burberry’s Animal Kingdom are referenced throughout the café space.

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