New York City-based retail concept Showfields recently celebrated
its first year in business, offering a unique retail model that has
effectively met the needs of both consumers and digitally-native
brands. Occupying a 14,000 square-foot space across four stories in
Manhattan’s Noho area, Showfields houses pop-ups for more than 50
brands at a time. Its roster of fashion, beauty, home, lifestyle and
tech brands evolves on a roughly seasonal basis, allowing the space to
completely transform to a new experience for shoppers and
visitors.
Showfields is one of the many new retailers demonstrating that
brick-and-mortar isn’t dead; it simply must adapt to new consumer
interests.
“Retail is in a place right now where it’s constantly evolving,”
Showfields CEO and co-founder Tal Zvi Nathanel told FashionUnited.
“We’re in a landscape where new brands are always being created, but
traditional stores typically only give consumers access to brands
they’re already familiar with, in the same store format they’re used
to. Younger customers are looking for new forms of retail tired and
that’s where Showfields comes in.”
The company’s business model allows brands without previous
brick-and-mortar retail experience to engage directly with consumers,
under the marketing and merchandising guidance of Showfields. Brand
partners have experienced impressive results from retailing through
Showfields, such as increasing sales by over 50 percent and growing
brand recognition among new demographics of consumer. The platform
allows brands in various stages of development to discover new retail
opportunities, test physical retail before launching a proprietary
location or expand their reach.
“Our biggest accomplishment of 2019 has truly been solving the pain
point of discovery in retail,” Nathanel continued. “Providing an
opportunity for brands to connect with consumers in ways they never
have before and giving consumers the chance to finally discover new
brands is what Showfields is all about. Our goal is to be the platform
meeting the retail needs of brands and consumers alike, and we can
truly say we’ve done that at Showfields.”
Showfields taps into C-Commerce to focus on the consumer
Nathanel explained that younger consumers are tired of traditional
brick-and-mortar stores and want “more” from retailers. “This ‘more’
is what we believe the future of retail is – something we call
C-Commerce or Consumer Commerce, which is a world built entirely for
the consumer by the consumer,” he said.
A consumer-first retail experience is not an entirely new concept.
Existing retailers have been transforming their stores to stay
competitive in a market driven by consumers who want “more.” Nike
debuted its House of Innovation on Manhattan’s Fifth
Avenue in 2018, bringing together digital integration, customization
and exhibition into a 68,000 square-foot space to demonstrate that
physical retail succeeds when shoppers have incentive to visit a
store. Macy’s followed a similar discovery-first strategy by launching
Story By Macy’s in 36 stores nationwide,
which entails curated shops within the main department store with
merchandise following a particular narrative.
“The five principles of C-Commerce are community, content,
convenience, curation and connection,” Nathanel explained. “While we
have touched on a few of these, such as convenience and curation, I
think the more challenging on the list are community and content.
“The way that Showfields is addressing these areas is to become a
stage for the most interesting artists, brands, movements and
creators. We are not the most interesting store in the world because
we are interesting, we are the most interesting store because we have
built a stage and a home for those that are. In a world where you are
truly a white box that can morph and change to bring anything to life
your only job is to listen to your customer. It’s one of the reasons
we close for four days every six months and open as an entirely new
store. It’s incredibly challenging every time, yet it pushes us to
never rest on the success of anything we have done before.”
Image: courtesy of Showfields
