Skip to main content

Creating a shop that’s more than a shop

Opinion
MoMA flagship store Lumsden

Callum Lumsden, founder and creative director at Lumsden, explains why enticing and engaging the modern shopper is all about offering a unique experience

Callum Lumsden, Lumsden Design

The pandemic has irrevocably changed retail. Yet, even before the beginning of the lockdowns in March 2020, the most successful shops had begun to recognise that their customers need – and want – so much more from their shopping experience.

For me, this is seen most obviously in the widening difference between “must-have” and “want to have” shopping. The “must-have” retailers – your everyday essentials – are increasingly going in the direction of Amazon Fresh and Sainsbury’s, which have recently piloted “checkout-free” shops. Their goal is simplicity and ease for their customers.

At the other end of the spectrum are the providers of “want to have” retail. This means shops that offer the opportunity for customers to buy something exclusive or luxurious. These are becoming increasingly experiential and, at times, offering culture as much as commerce. It is also significant that those in the middle – such as the traditional department store – who have failed to modernise now face an uncertain future.

Creating unique museum shops

At Lumsden, we have long recognised the need for retail spaces to offer a deeply curated experience. Our work designing the retail spaces at the Tate Modern in London and MoMA in New York ensures that visitors to the store can enjoy more than just pick up memorabilia; the space is an extension of the museum and merchandised with carefully curated, exclusive products.

Other brands who have recognised this include Lululemon, whose stores are designed as fitness community hubs that offer yoga and meditation classes. Meanwhile, Canada Goose’s immersive shops allow customers to test their products in sub-zero temperatures as they experience the sensation of crossing an arctic tundra. And Nike describes its global flagship stores as “experience-driven retail”. These feature areas for playing sports, products curated to reflect the city they are in and, in New York, the chance to try out augmented reality.

Warner Bros Studio Tour - Harry Potter

Someone once told me that they hadn’t realised that they had arrived in the museum shop that we designed for The Making of Harry Potter, an immersive Warner Brothers studio tour on the outskirts of London, where the original movie franchise was filmed. It shows just how engaging a shop can be.

And this is crucial if you want to tempt consumers out of the house and away from their laptops and smartphones. They need to feel it is more than a shopping trip. They need to be engaged and entertained.

Bringing culture to the fore

This was what we had to bear in mind when we were designing both the M+ shop and The Other Shop for M+.

M+ is Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture and it opened in November 2021. Twenty-five years in the making, and built by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, this collection of 20th and 21st Century contemporary visual culture from the region, has been described as Asia’s answer to MoMa and the Tate Modern.

M+ is located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, an area with ambitions to become an international arts destination. We had to evoke the spirit of the museum. And we also had to stand out in an area rapidly filling with creative spaces.

M+ museum shop

First, we gathered a comprehensive history of the city to inspire our work. It allowed us to incorporate Hong Kong’s colour and activity into the design and to capture the bustling feel of the local market stalls.

The Other Shop, located by the waterfront promenade, is the museum’s lifestyle concept store. Its merchandise, including clothes and children’s books, reflects that. It even includes a zero-waste wall. This allows visitors to bring in their own containers and purchase a selection of skincare products and other toiletries.

The M+ Shop, on the ground floor, offers publications and limited-edition products by artists and creators. This is a place to showcase artistic activity inspired by stories from the collection and art in the actual museum.

We treated both spaces as if we had a stage set. Hong Kong is one of the biggest retail centres on the planet. So, if you want visitors to make a stop at your shop, you must give them a real reason to.

Reaping the rewards

Suhanya Raffel, the museum’s director, told us that the shops “give an additional experience for our visitors… they enhance, amplify and explore further what it means to be a twenty-first-century museum”.

We really wanted to make it more than just somewhere to pick up a mug. In all that we do we make sure the design and branding are bespoke and customised. It is a vast museum of visual arts with a collection that covers all of Asia. This makes it a fantastic opportunity for retail to enhance the museum-goers’ experience.

Museum shop M+ Lumsden

In the M+ Shop, we built Dai Pai Dongs (traditional Hong Kong food market stalls) that acknowledge the heritage of the region. The biggest one is a space for artist installations. This is an example of how much more a shop can offer than buying and selling; it can be a place to interact with the local community. I’d love to see a space where origami experts give lessons in inventive gift-wrapping and calligraphy. People could purchase their gifts and gain new skills in the process.

The retail experience should encourage interaction from visitors. This kind of activity transforms a shop into a destination in its own right, museum or no museum.

Share this
Callum Lumsden, Lumsden Design

Callum Lumsden

Callum Lumsden is a leading design expert for cultural and visitor attractions. His design agency, Lumsden Design, creates memorable and profitable environments for major destinations around the world, whilst providing a seamless and immersive experience for their visitors.

More from this author

Companies featured in this post

More from this author

Related content

Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for more security, speed and the best experience on this site.

Find out how to update