In “liquid" times as the present ones when companies are asking for increasing flexibility and easy-to change strategies because of unprecedented unexpected events like pandemic and wars, new behaviors and habits are also affecting companies’ decisions.
Along with that, consumers are counting on lower budgets to spend, show increased attention for online shopping and are increasingly more focused on the digital dimension when taking purchasing decisions.
Not less important are the soon-to-be approved European Green Deal laws affecting the industry at all levels–from product design and manufacturing down to company headquarters' and stores’ design.
Among some most evident changes is the mushrooming of new flagship stores, characterised by more sustainable product offer and an a more responsible design approach.
As recently highlighted during Fashion Magazine’s “Business Acumen” convention, the Italian fashion brand Patrizia Pepe disclosed its new sustainable concept expresses through nine Patrizia Pepe Hub innovative stores, according to a new flexible and more responsible concept, of whose five opened in Italian cities, and four more in international fashion capitals including two in Paris, one in Cannes and one in Amsterdam.
Patrizia Pepe’s "hubs" are set up within existing spaces, without any architectural or structural intervention. The available layout is customised with a series of continuous and mobile modular elements, taking a circular approach in which each component can be recycled and replicated without further consumption and production waste.
Among other recent examples, as highlighted by The SPIN OFF, there is, for instance, Yamamay, that opened its first responsible store in Siena, according to a concept meant to help the customer feel better - and therefore spend more time inside the store - through better quality of the air, easy to adapt temperature, according to the external temperature, or as presented by the book “Retailoring”, as presented by expert insider Emanuele Sacerdote’s lucid analysis if the state of the art of fashion retail.
Ecoalf has also recently opened a new flagship store in Milan made of recycled and recyclable materials, as well as using a special paint that helps purify air.
Among them there is Zordan, an Italian Bcorp company specialising in retail spaces and already working for luxury brands including Bulgari, Dior and Fendi. The company has recently opened its new headquarters near Vicenza, according to sustainable criteria it can also recreate in the fashion stores it works with.
This furniture manufacturer, while using 100% FSC certified wood. In addition, it has developed a tool to track the CFP (Product Carbon Footprint) of its clients' retail concepts as an indicator to measure and reduce their climate impact in-keeping with new measures the European Union will adopt to achieve zero emissions by 2050.
Through this tool, Zordan can calculate the carbon footprint of each shop's furniture according to the raw materials they use, how they are transformed, and how they are transported and about their end-of-life.
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