Affordable Luxury
Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail has launched its first exclusive brand outlet (EBO) for women’s fast fashion, Cover Story. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Future Group, Cover Story opened its first standalone store in Infiniti mall in Malad, a suburb in Mumbai, followed closely by a second outlet in DLF Mall of India, NOIDA.
The mall-focused brand is all to establish its retail presence in 30 cities across India by 2018. With the aim of providing consumers with a luxurious yet affordable shopping experience, the brand is all set to open more outlets in India. By the end of three years, Cover Story plans to expand its physical presence by opening stores in 50 locations in India.
Design Concept
In a bid to set itself apart from competition – namely Zara, H&M and Forever 21 – the Cover Story team is designing Gen Next stores with some stunning technology to boot, providing consumers with an experience that cannot be replicated online.
Here’s a look:
All Cover Story outlets are designed to recreate the intimate boutique, and provide a comfortable shopping experience.
Store Layout
The layout is layers of transparency with opacity, which encourages a sense of discovery while shopping
Designer Essentials
The cash counter mimics a woman’s vanity bag, while changing rooms have seating for the comfort of waiting friends and family.
Colour Scheme
A warm and neutral palette has been chosen for the store as well as all the equipment in it. Colours such as Rose Gold have been opted for, to give the place a feminine touch, to help women identify with the store.
As Good as It Gets
The display panels in the store are designed to look like magazine editorials.
Smart Clusters
Exclusive fashion clusters display merchandise as if they were stories, luring women into reading them.
Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising is done by and premium in-store windows are designed by London stylists on the lines of international luxury brands.
Smart Displays
The window displays of each store will be refreshed twice a month and will tell the latest trend story. The store will bring in new styles every week to boost shopping.
Its fast fashion format aims to increase the frequency of shoppers.
Phy-gital Stores
Customers can browse tablets with fashion content and styling tips. Cover Story’s in-store ‘selfie booths’ are bound to create brand excitement. Consumers can browse through stores and merchandise, share their personal information, and then have their shopping home delivered.
Shoppers can even make a request for sizes not currently available at the store. A personal shopper will then locate the size from other outlets and deliver it to the consumer.
