Psychedelic trips, sex therapy and virtual reality: Selfridges has found a quirky recipe to lure people into its department stores. The British chain shows how retail can be detached from shopping.
Selfridges does self-care
In a market landscape where department store chain after department store chain is closing down, Selfridges is doing everything it can to remain trendy and relevant. While House of Fraser and Debenhams closed last year, their rival invested in large-scale events and installations. Today, a staggering 237 UK department store premises are vacant, after 83 per cent (that’s more than five in every six) of the UK’s leading department stores closed their books over the last five years.
In contrast, Selfridges dedicated its London branch to Op-Art artist Vasarely last month, with NFTs to boot. Now the luxury department store is going all out on self-care and self-discovery. From 28 February, the Superself event “takes visitors on a journey of uplifting self-discovery and nurturing self-care”.
The department store chain does this, for instance, by using VR capsules that offer customers a psychedelic trip using scents, infrared light, heat and sound, describes The Guardian. Ten minutes of floating through “a calming universe of kaleidoscopic forms and relaxing music” right in the centre of the beating heart of London or Birmingham? Why not.
Anything but retail
Sex therapy sessions and confidence coaching or hypnosis are also among the options for getting consumers back to the high streets post-Covid. Selfridges recognises that to give physical stores a sustainable presence, they need to focus on experiences and services other than just shopping. Previously, there have been events on themes such as literature and the environment.
Cutting costs? That will have to be done elsewhere, such as on the 450 staff members made redundant in 2020. Or by optimising the use of space, according to new owners Central Group and Signa Holding. The Thai-Austrian joint venture wants to open a luxury hotel and rent out flats, among other things, at the iconic location on Oxford Street.
