This year’s winners come from the USA, Poland and Italy, the store concept of Hershey’s Chocolate World, Jabłka Adama and Replay The Stage having won the approval of the jury. With Jablka Adama, the EuroShop RetailDesign Award has for the first time been won by a Polish retail company.
To emerge as a winner from the competition, this year’s entrants once again had to appeal to their customers with a successful mix of store architecture, colour, materials, lighting and visual merchandising, and convey a clear message about their product range.
Hershey’s Chocolate World, Las Vegas/USA (Nevada)
US confectioner Hershey opened its flagship store in Las Vegas in September 2014. The store is an integral part of the New York-New York hotel and its frontage boasts larger-than-life candy products. Inside the store, a white-and-silver colour scheme and high-gloss terrazzo, wallpapers, graphics and painted walls await customers. Besides New York buildings in chocolate, interactive elements turn the brand products into something customers can experience. “Flavour walls” and confectionery stands devoted to the different Hershey brands give customers the opportunity to personalize their favourite products. They can even star in a specially created Reese's TV ad and put it online via the social media. At Hershey’s Chocolate Wrapper Bar, visitors can pose for a photo which then adorns the product packaging and is displayed on an outdoor digital wall on Las Vegas Strip. The store was designed by JGA.
Jabłka Adama (Adam's Apples), Poznań/Poland
Jablka Adama – “Adam’s Apples” in English – is a combination of the name of the store owner, Adam, and the Apple products that are sold there. The challenge lay in integrating a brand with high recognition value into a non-typical environment. The interior of the small, 60sqm store designed by Polish architects Modelina Architekci is reminiscent of a fruit market in playful reference to the brand's trademark. For example, to present the products the company uses a wooden sales stall on wheels. Echoing this, the side walls are decorated with brown paper bags. Wooden crates built into the rear wall offer further display space. Two white pendant light fittings create an optical contrast with the store’s predominately wooden materials.
Replay The Stage, Milan/Italy
In September 2014, the Italian jeans label Replay opened a flagship store in Milan’s trendy Porta Nuova district. This “multi-experience store” with a selling area of 1,500sqm is a symbiosis of store design and theatre set. Stage equipment, polished concrete flooring, spotlights against black ceilings and power cables, house walls made with wooden planks and backdrops create a raw but bustling interior. Every backdrop sets a different scene: for example, a modest house from the US Midwest with vintage wallpaper is shrouded by a tornado – which, on closer inspection, turns out to be a spiralling kaleidoscope of brass butterflies. There is also a tailor’s shop from 1928 Manhattan, where customers can have jeans made to measure. Goods are displayed on tables, steel shelving and mannequins, but the garments are also integrated into the different sets. This variable space concept by New York design agency Roman and Williams Interior allows every “set” to be changed rapidly.
This year, 79 projects from 23 countries were submitted – a new participation record! Once again, the crucial winning criterion was a holistic store concept with a clear message about the product range. The international jury selected this year’s winners from the 28 finalists.
www.euroshop-award.com
Source: Messe Düsseldorf GmbH
