This Brand is Creating an In-Store Experience Unlike Any Other
Back in November, Japanese retailer Muji expanded their downtown Toronto flagship store. The retailer is most known for its range of minimalist lifestyle products. With only one step in the store, you immediately feel "zenned" out. That could be due to the aroma diffusers and spa music that echoes in the air. This location is now the largest outside of Asia and is creating a unique and personal brand experience for its visitors.
Muji Yourself
Here are some of the services and experiences you can find in the flagship store.
Embroidery and Alterations
Planted near the entrance of the store there is an embroidery and alterations station. Complete with an embroidery machine, you can add those little details on to any piece of Muji fabric item.
Digital Fabric Printing
These machines will let customers print a photo from their phone onto select apparel and home fabric items. (Unfortunately, they were out of service when I visited).
Laser Engraving Service
Customers can have letters engraved into Muji products like pencil cases, trays and storage units.
Stamps and Sticker Printing
Muji stamps are perfect for customizing your blank notebooks! They also have a sticker printing option, which you can use for labelling and personalizing your belongings.
Other in-store features they have include an aroma bar, where you can make a customized fragrance from essential oils, and a coffee counter where you can purchase ethically sourced coffee.
A closer look at the Muji Experience:
The Future of Retail
There has been a large number of brands succumbing to the “retail apocalypse” over the last year alone. The shifting of purchasing habits, the rise of e-commerce, and the changing perceptions of fast fashion are all contributing factors. Simply put if brands can’t stay relevant or find ways to connect with customers it might be game over. Perhaps brands can learn from Muji’s ways. They’ve found a way to innovate the in-store experience by creating add-on, personalization services for its customers. All-encompassing retailers are the future, they give you more to do, to touch, and to remember. It’s these details that help create connections with customers, and why they’ll keep coming back for more.
RxS is a platform that shares stories of innovation and creation. Powered by the humans of Rightsleeve, a promotional products agency.