In order to communicate its innovative approach to beauty retail, Slovenian cosmetics brand AlpStories enlisted Croatian interior design studio Brigada to create a tech-enhanced concept for its new store in Zagreb, Croatia, including an on-site robot that mixes personalised skincare products.

Situated inside the Arena Centre shopping mall, the store concept emulates its online retail model, which invites consumers to custom-create products by combining selected natural ingredients, such as vitamin-rich plant extracts sourced from the Austrian Alps. They can also design their own packaging; colour-ways, logos and a personal photo can all be added.

The co-creation happens in a customisation area stationed in the middle of the store. An AlpStories specialist provides one-to-one consultations using a skin analysis machine to determine the skin type and the combination of ingredients that will suit the customer best. Armed with that data, the personalised concoction is created using a mixing station partnered with a touchscreen digital kiosk, plus a robot inside a glass-walled studio that prepares the product.

For more on the value of revealing production processes, see Exploiting Insider Access and Show & Tell Retail: Revealing the Product Journey. For more on customisation, see Co-Creation & Experimentation, part of our Future of the Store Industry Trend.

The spatial design tempers the overall emphasis on scientific acumen with a nature-inspired aesthetic. Materials including pine wooden shelves and slate walls showcase product, while a photographic mural of a mountainous scene, referencing the product's core ingredients, stretches across the back wall.

While some beauty brands are enhancing their selling spaces with lifestyle-focused initiatives to engage consumers (see Benefit: Teen-Targeted Beauty, Wellness Retail: Beauty Library, Tokyo and Caudalie Store-Spa Concept), others are using high-tech concepts or science-inspired spatial design to denote industry innovation and advanced product knowledge. For more examples of this trend, see Jugen Uses Lab-Look to Build Trust, Burberry: Tech-Tastic Beauty Store, Moda in 3D: Digital Printed Beauty, Clinique: Digital Skincare Pop-Up and Scientifically-Styled Retail Spaces.

For more on beauty retailing in general, see Bespoke Beauty: New Retail Strategies, Selling Beauty Online, Beauty Retail Trends 2014, Pop-Ups Evolve: Cultural Collisions and our Industry Trend Rethinking Beauty.

For more on wider strategies for selling beauty, see Bespoke Beauty: New Retail Strategy, Benefit Targets Teen Beauty Market and Selling Beauty Online. For more on Brigada's work, see Museum & Exhibition Design Inspiration for Retail Creatives.