Flagships for Zoomers: Gen Z Store Concepts
Gen Zers (aka Zoomers), who hold a cumulative annual spending power of $360bn globally, are the most likely generation to shop in-store (see Key Stats). We distil the bricks-and-mortar experiences capturing that wallet, including state-of-the-art multimedia content factories, metaverse-mimicking brand spaces, Y2K temples to post-pandemic revelry, purpose-led flagships, and events-anchored spaces leaning into local subcultures.
Multimedia Nerve Centres: Proximity to Pop Culture
Events-Led Spaces Support Lives Interrupted
Post-Covid Revelry: Temples to Extreme Taste
Tech Playscapes: Web3 Flagships
Purpose Driven Store Concepts
Giving consumers an enticingly close-to-the-action window onto pop culture – particularly music – smart brands including Vans and Belowground are making creative pursuits central to flagship success with in-store recording studios and radio broadcasting. Others are responding to Gen Z’s content creation side hustle via co-creational performance spaces, empowering their creativity.
Giving consumers an enticingly close-to-the-action window onto pop culture – particularly music – smart brands including Vans and Belowground are making creative pursuits central to flagship success with in-store recording studios and radio broadcasting. Others are responding to Gen Z’s content creation side hustle via co-creational performance spaces, empowering their creativity.
Summary
Multimedia Nerve Centres: Proximity to Pop Culture | Giving consumers an enticingly close-to-the-action window onto pop culture – particularly music – smart brands including Vans and Belowground are making creative pursuits central to flagship success with in-store recording studios and radio broadcasting. Others are responding to Gen Z’s content creation side hustle via co-creational performance spaces, empowering their creativity. |
Events-Led Spaces Support Lives Interrupted | Shrewd brands including American-Singaporean gaming company Razer and Berlin fashion think tank/store Platte are offering local support to Gen Z creatives across art, fashion, gaming and music, to create subcultural IRL (in real life) bonds atoning the ‘lost years’ of the pandemic. With many Gen Zers feeling overwhelmed by social media (see Key Stats), nurturing offline communities is a smart tactic. |
Post-Covid Revelry: Temples to Extreme Taste | Reacting to Covid restrictions (which constrained Gen Z’s social lives) and pervasive millennial-driven design codes (perceived as bland by many of their generational successors), luxury brands are courting next-gen big spenders with physical activations and store designs that fetishise all-out, Y2K-style fun. |
Tech Playscapes: Web3 Flagships | Triggered by Gen Z interest in Web3 (the next phase of the internet, including the shared virtual worlds of the metaverse), astute brands are creating beyond-functional, tech-centric retail spaces. From metaverse-aping flagships to activations riffing on the spatial web, the best re-imagine the physical store for a hyper-interactive online era. |
Purpose Driven Store Concepts | Many Gen Zers prioritise equitable brand engagement, with 72% of American Gen Z-ers saying they’re now more likely to buy from a purpose-driven brand (WP Engine, 2022). Catering to this cohort, smart retailers like Gen Z-owned American underwear brand Parade are playing out eco-ethical and inclusivity-pushing agendas in-store. Strategies include AR celebrating relatable bodies, male-gaze-countering maximalism, and climate-conscious recommerce, among others. |
Flagships for Zoomers: Gen Z Store Concepts
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Want to see the full report?
Offering access to over 350 consumer and cross-industry reports annually, Stylus Membership is your window to tomorrow’s most exciting opportunities.
We already arm more than 500 of the world’s most forward-thinking brands and agencies with the creative insights they need to make transformative business decisions.
We’d love to do the same for you.
Book a demo with us today to discover more.
