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Op-Ed: PSFK Visits The Retail Development At New York’s Hudson Yards https://ift.tt/2OmDErg Last week, the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, a seven-story complex that offers nearly 1 million square feet of retail space within the new Hudson Yards megadevelopment, opened to the public in New York City. PSFK researchers went to see if this retail playground built on top of a railyard in the city’s far West Side measured up to the hype. As a retail space, the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards is dazzling; entering it feels like stepping into a glamorous megamall in Shanghai or Dubai. While it succeeds as a mall, will that be enough for it to succeed in today’s competitive retail environment? The roster of shops contains many of the usual suspects, such as Zara, Uniqlo and H&M, but it is unclear whether these shops will serve as enough of a draw, considering that each of these retailers has flagship spaces elsewhere in the city. As consumers increasingly want their favored brands to be a part of their everyday lives, what will compel shoppers to come to this location, which is relatively cut off from the rest of the city, when they could just pop into one of the retailer’s other stores on Fifth Avenue or SoHo as they go about their days? Whether these retailers will offer exclusive experiences that shoppers can only get at Hudson Yards and not at their other locations throughout the city remains to be seen. One area where the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards stands out is in its curation of digitally native brands in a bid to appeal to younger shoppers, offering items that can’t be found elsewhere in the city–or anywhere else. Its ‘Floor of Discovery’ on the second floor puts a spotlight on emerging DTC brands, such as Mack Weldon and Stance, giving many of them their first permanent physical retail presence. Because consumers can buy anything they want online, they increasingly look to the physical store as a means to engage with their favorite brands, so it is surprising that many of these stores seem very traditional in their layout and merchandising. Perhaps in the coming months, these DTC brands will fully leverage the physical store as an opportunity to educate and connect with their community in a way that they cannot do online. Anchor tenant Neiman Marcus has created a beautifully laid out store that offers shoppers some additional value-added services, such as a denim customization bar, a beauty salon, arcade games and a digital styling lounge where shoppers can meet with a stylist and browse styles found only online. However, it remains to be proven if this will be enough for this Dallas-based retailer to stand out in New York’s already crowded luxury retail landscape and draw shoppers from the city’s iconic department stores and flagships, who are currently revitalizing their store experiences. While the exhibition space Snark Park and an art installation called HYxOffTheWall provide plenty of social media-friendly backdrops and 3DEN provides a spa space for relaxing (for a fee), there is little in the way of gathering spaces, or even spaces to sit. The lack of community space stands out, as other malls are currently striving to reinvent themselves as modern town halls, almost as if the experience was meant to be something broadcast to friends on social media rather than enjoyed together in person. Although the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards offers a very pleasant, even luxurious, shopping experience, much of it seems geared towards tourists or the future residents of Hudson Yards, and it remains to be seen whether it will be a draw for New Yorkers at large, given their general aversion to anything resembling a suburban shopping mall. Overall, many aspects of the Hudson Yards experience already seem as though they were conceived in an earlier era of retail, bypassing many of the current trends that PSFK is seeing happening elsewhere in New York retail, as brands are using their physical spaces as marketing vehicles to share their brand stories and create immersive experiences that surprise and delight. When presented with the ultimate blank slate—a previously undeveloped section of Manhattan—it’s surprising that the developers chose to create something in the mold of a traditional mall, instead of seizing the opportunity to create an entirely new and inspiring retail experience. Retailers To Visit: Forty Five Ten Dirty Lemon: The Drug Store Peach Mart Snark Park x KITH Treats 3DEN M.Gemi Batch b8ta Photo credit: Penn Whaling Last week, the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, a seven-story complex that offers nearly 1 million square feet of retail space within the new Hudson Yards megadevelopment, opened to the public in New York City. PSFK researchers went to see if this retail playground built on top of a railyard in the city’s far West Side measured up to the hype. As a retail space, the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards is dazzling; entering it feels like stepping into a glamorous megamall in Shanghai or Dubai. While it succeeds as a mall, will that be enough for it to succeed in today’s competitive retail environment? Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 24, 2019 at 06:38AM
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