Habitat launches first new flagship store in 10 years
Habitat has opened its first standalone store in 10 years with the launch of a new flagship at the Westfield London shopping centre.
The opening will be followed by the launch of a new stanadalone store in Brighton in November.
Part of Westfield’s new ‘Home’ hub, which brings together a range of homewares and furniture retailers, the 4,700 square foot store is Habitat’s third largest in the UK.
Designed by the retailer’s in-house design studio, it features over 1,400 products from the Habitat collection across furniture, lighting, textiles and home accessories.
Clare Askem, managing director of Habitat, said: “Westfield London will be our first large format store to offer customers a new immersive Habitat shopping experience within a major shopping mall and is aimed at those that who want the convenience of different fashion, home and entertainment retailers in one easy to shop location.”
She added: “As we evolve the Habitat brand we’re conscious of catering for customers who increasingly want the choice of shopping in stores or online in a way that suits them. Alongside good digital growth we’ve seen a great reaction to our store format trials which allow customers to interact with our products in different retail environments.”
With a minimalist feel, the store is an evolution of the Tottenham Court Road store which was re-designed in 2106. The space has been built around a white cube framework with no large digital screens, imposing fixtures or dramatic architectural details to distract the customer from the products on display.
Matthew Long, senior designer for Habitat, said: “The store is designed as a calm, inspiring environment where customers can browse product at their leisure.”
Amy Rich, Habitat visual merchandising manager, added: “We’ve purposely created a modern market-place feel with abundant, informal stacks of tactile products placed throughout this journey, to encourage customers to touch-and-feel designs as well as naturally flow through the space.”
The store also features an adaptable installation and “events cube” that will house design collaborations and small customer workshops each month.
Meanwhile, Habitat’s new store in Brighton will be situated in the Brighton Lanes shopping area. Ranged over two floors, the 6,500 square foot shop will showcase around 3,000 Habitat products.
