Harrods Beauty Hall: A Masterpiece of Experiential Retail
Harrods has officially opened the 4th of its dedicated beauty stores, this time in Bristol, and it’s nothing short of an experiential playground at every turn.
A mainstay of British retail, Harrods is known for its iconic department store in the heart of London’s busiest shopping district. The Oxford Street flagship space has been filled to the brim with the world’s most desirable brands for nearly 200 years, attracting an international audience of shoppers and serving as a tourist destination in its own right.
In recent years, Harrods made movements to recalibrate its market position and appeal to a new generation of shoppers in locations outside of the capital. This effort involved the launch of a highly-anticipated beauty hall concept – H Beauty – that would rival Selfridges by presenting customers with a wide range of luxury cosmetics, perfumes, gifts and in-store experiences. The newest H Beauty outlet does not stray from this tradition, hosting 86 international beauty brands from a massive 25,000ft2 site inside The Mall, Cribbs Causeway.
With the first images of the store’s interior appearing on our screens, it’s safe to say that the space is an experiential masterpiece from floor to ceiling. It is a haven for beauty fanatics, offering them access to the industry’s most celebrated brands, personalized consultations from experts as well as opportunities to indulge and socialize with friends.
As an overall concept, H Beauty excels in creating hyper-localized services. It aims to deliver products and brand interactions based on the preferences and values of the local community, providing customers with a shopping experience that simultaneously reinforces their own sense of identity whilst encouraging them to explore new ideas and trends.
We love how each of the H Beauty stores uses integrated LED lighting within its shelving displays to bathe products in a halo of warm light and foster an atmosphere of opulence. Gold material finishes and a colour palette of pastel blues and pinks only enhance this further, creating a luxurious space that is a delight to all five senses.
The opening of this H Beauty store in Bristol and the plans for a 5th to be opened in Newcastle later this year prove that there is still a real appetite amongst British shoppers for physical retail spaces that provide hands-on experiences and environments in which they can reconnect with some another in meaningful ways.
At Unibox, we have been working alongside brands and design agencies to create experience-led retail spaces for over 30 years. Learn more about the range of retail display solutions, store lighting systems and visual communication aids here.
The images of the H Beauty store in Bristol have been sourced from Retail Focus.
