Electronics retailer The Source is taking the shopping experience into the new retail age with the launch of its first experiential-format store.
The store, located in Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre, is designed to give customers a “hands-on, tech-centric” experience, according to the company.
“Our original store design doesn’t facilitate the ability to showcase electronics in a way that people want to shop,” said Ron Craig, VP of marketing of The Source told Marketing. The majority of The Source stores are “a little bit old-school retail and the new design really borrows from some of the best practices you see in places like the Apple Store, the Microsoft Store and even some of the mobility [retailers].”
To start, a front window digital display features dynamic content to help educate shoppers on various brands. In the store, a table display highlight’s The Source’s tagline, “I Want That” and showcases new “hot” products.
In addition, products have been grouped into categories and displayed to allow for interactive demos. A new headphone wall, for example, displays top brands that shoppers can test and compare before they buy. And products like tablets and phones are laid out on tables to allow customers to touch, feel and pick them up.
Craig said the redesign is the next step in The Source’s brand transformation. “Over the last couple of years, The Source has been moving quietly to evolve what had traditionally been more of a convenience-type offering, specializing in things like consumer electronics and batteries, to really position The Source as a more complete one-stop shop,” he said.
With the new design, “we’ve created a more shoppable experiential format that really ties into what we’re doing from a product and brand perspective.”
The store, which was designed by Toronto-based Shikatani Lacroix, serves as a prototype for future The Source locations. “We’re going to look at how it performs… and then we’ll look at scaling it,” said Craig.
The Source has 650 locations nationwide.
