It used to be said there’s no business like show business. Not anymore. The lines between shopping and theatre are set to blur as bricks-and-mortar retailers plan how to regain their position in a post-Covid landscape by means of in-store theatrics and “shoppertainment”. Three years ago, in fact, when Oxford’s Westgate Shopping Centre opened in the UK, customers were greeted with a performance of Alice In Wonderland. In an interview with The Guardian, the then managing director of John Lewis, Paula Nickolds, explained that the new Oxford branch of the department store was “more than a route to selling things”. It would also offer services and experiences and provide an “experience desk” where shoppers could book in for whichever extra-curricular activity they most liked. More recently – last week in fact – Belgian designer Dries Van Noten opened his first standalone US store in Los Angeles. The 8,500 sq ft space occupies a former jewellery factory and is bigger than each one of the 62-year-old designer’s other six stores in Europe and Asia. It’s an intriguing move by the luxury stalwart right in the middle of a pandemic and at a time when online sales are rising sharply.

The Los Angeles Times described the space as “more like a cultural salon”. Like Nickolds, Van Noten’s vision for the store stretches far beyond a mere commercial space selling clothes. He wants it to be a place to host art shows, literary readings and performances. In 2018, designer Victoria Beckham had a similar notion and joined forces with Sotheby’s so that a selection of master paintings due to go on sale at the London auction house in early 2019 were available to view at her Dover Street flagship store.

Within the commercial remit of the Van Noten Los Angeles store, the designer has made the brilliant decision to include archival pieces from past collections. What a fantastic idea. No more scouring Vestiaire Collective for the exquisite coat you knew you couldn’t afford at the time, but now know you can’t live without either. That’s one pretty efficient way of getting shoppers offline and in-store. When the pandemic ends customers will also be able to sell back their Dries items and have them repaired and refurbished.

As far as I’m concerned, you can keep your Alice In Wonderland experience (the very idea of it reminds me of the time I went to the Gate Theatre to see an interactive performance of The Great Gatsby...never again), but I love the idea of a clothing store-cum-art gallery or a fashion store which also sells books (Van Noten’s LA store includes both books and vinyl).

For one thing, it would be much easier to persuade my sister to come shopping with me, but really it would encompass all of my favourite things in a single beautiful space, which sounds ridiculously convenient and a lot of fun.

You may be thinking, isn’t this what a department store offers – a variety of products under one roof? The difference is that these retail spaces of the future will offer a niche aesthetic for a specific customer rather than the giant fishing net approach taken by stores such as Arnotts and John Lewis.

One thing is certain, however, post-pandemic, retail stores of all types will have to work much harder to get customers through their doors. They may not begin by teaming up with local theatres, but they will need to find a way to provide an enhanced customer experience. This is partly about increasing and improving the tangible offerings, such as in-store eateries, personal stylists and additional products, but it’s also about offering customers the kind of engagement that leaves them with a sense that they understand the personality of the brand/store and in some way feel aligned with its values. Without the aid of pantomime, local boutiques such as Havana in Donnybrook and Seagreen in Monkstown, as well as ateliers like Louise Kennedy, have always offered the kind of customer experience which makes shoppers feel important and valued, but going forward this will be an essential element of all strong, long-lasting relationships between retailers and consumers.

It’s clear Van Noten is a dab hand at bringing the unique personality of his brand to its retail outlets. He understands that the cultural context of each store is just as important to making customers feel they are valued by the luxury label and not just generic, credit-card carrying cash cows as the quality of customer service within that store. In the Los Angeles Times interview he explained, “For me, a store has to be unique, reflect the city it’s in and the person who keeps the store. I don’t like chain stores. I like stores that have something special. They show you the personality of the owner.” With its bright and modern interior, the LA store is worlds apart from the sumptuous, boudoir-style rooms of his Paris premises near the river Seine. It really puts those pre-pandemic lunchtime changing room queues in Zara into perspective, doesn’t it? Moving forward, who wants to be packed into a high-street store as tightly as the garments on a rail?

We’ve had very small tasters in Dublin of the kind of retail theatre we might hope to see more of post-pandemic. The Brown Thomas Create initiative has always offered beauty and drama certainly, but also an opportunity to meet with the designers themselves, to learn more about their brands, as well as a chance for BTs to demonstrate its commitment to supporting Irish designers. This initiative gives the store a character that extends beyond being merely purveyors of expensive products. Luxury department stores have a challenge ahead of them. Boutiques are already offering a high-end product coupled with the kind of personalised one-to-one shopping experience that looks likely to define the post-Covid retail landscape. How will large department stores filled with part-time, half-interested salespeople compete?

In Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, there’s an on-site aquarium boasting more than 140 species plus the world’s biggest collection of sand sharks in a captive environment. It’s what analysts are calling “shoppertainment” and it’s driving the kind of footfall that luxury products alone don’t inspire anymore. It’s likely that the “experience economy”, a phrase coined several years ago to reflect the increase in consumer spending on experiences rather than products, will gain even greater momentum after a year or more of rotating lockdowns and Level 3 precautions. In the immediate post-Covid world, I suspect we’re going to care a lot more about doing things than buying things.

How will retailers entice us through their doors if our focus post-pandemic is on making up for the adventures we missed out on this year? Will they be able to compete with the convenience and expediency of online shopping now that it’s become second nature to most of us? Can what they have to offer rival the enjoyment of an IRL theatre trip or museum visit or cinema experience? How will they ensure that we leave their stores feeling somehow enriched and better for having spent our time inside their doors rather than someone else’s? Who knows just yet, but it’s certainly going to be fun watching them try.

Marie Kelly, October 2020.

What are your thoughts, dear reader? The comments are open for you below…