UK largest operator EE has opens it’s first ‘experience store’ in Cardiff on Monday, allowing customers play around with new tech.
EE new stores is hoping to ‘reinvent the role of the traditional phone shop’ and is ‘a vote of confidence in the Welsh high street.’ More specifically, The shop comprises of is four different ‘zones’ all of which in some ways are designed to get people using or looking at tech products more closely.
Customers are now welcomed by the appropriately named ‘Welcome Zone’ which seems to be just the shopfront, housing a digital window canvas, although the Gaming Zone does what it says on the tin letting people explore and play various gaming consoles. Base Camp is a more relaxed affair with sofas, free tea and coffee, work benches, and Tech Live getting customer closer to, and buying new technology products.
More unusually it has ‘room sets’ similar to a popular household swedish brand, where customers can see some teched-up living rooms and home office set ups in action.
EE is planning more stores over the next year or so, as the operator says it’s part of its new retail strategy as it seeks to reinvent the role of retail in the telco industry putting innovation, personal experience, and community service front and centre.’
“Our vision is for each of our EE stores to be so much more than a traditional phone shop. We know that our customers want innovative and exciting retail experiences that give them a reason to visit time and time again. We have therefore redesigned our stores to ensure EE continues to offer the most personal, customer-focused service on the high street, helping people get more out of their connected lives and allowing them to see what the future’s got in store.” said Asif Aziz OBE, Retail Director at EE.
With high-street shopping in steady decline and a ever increasing market increments made by Amazon, high streets are left reeling looking for answers, if nothing else its nice to see firms come up with some fresh thinking and ideas around the traditional retail experience.
