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SKP-S upends the phygital retail experience

SKP-S mall, Beijing

China – Design-led retail space SKP-S is courting young luxury shoppers through phygital, future-bending interiors.

Opened as a wing of Beijing department store SKP, the space has been curated by Seoul-based eyewear brand Gentle Monster, which, working with architects Sybarite, is challenging the meaning of traditional store design. With numerous theatrical settings based on the theme Digital-Analogue Future, SKP-S toys with a future in which technological leaps will allow mankind to blur the boundaries between human and digital realms.

Comprising multiple floors, including a dedicated beauty area, SKP-S is anchored by a continually changing Art Experiment Space, that will feature a roster of exhibitions and installations. With bricks-and-mortar retailers facing stiff competition from online innovators, multi-brand retailers are beginning to deploy new strategies to keep people engaged.

And with Chinese luxury consumers losing their obsession with big international labels, affluent shoppers are instead looking for domestic brands that cater for a more mature market. We explore this in our State of Luxury: China market.

Eco-ride-sharing that rewards regular use

Joyn by Layer Studio

UK – Experience design agency Layer is proposing an autonomous ride-sharing platform that rewards urban users’ sustainable behaviour.

The concept, Joyn, aims to make ride-sharing a more desirable form of transport for city dwellers. Promising business-class comfort and convenience, Joyn confronts some of the public transport sector’s current challenges by offering a safer, more private and eco-friendly alternative to existing ride-sharing services.

Using the Joyn app, future travellers will accrue points for using the service, which can be exchanged for goods and services or given as a charity donation. They will also be able to connect with other riders, highlighting Joyn’s community-focused aspect, with Layer developing modular seats that maximise privacy but can also be adapted to allow face-to-face conversation or to let riders sit side by side.

As we explore in our Mobility vertical, brands and agencies are innovating the future of transport and commuting in order to meet the sustainability challenges of future urban environments.

Women step up to drive sneaker re-sale

US – Selling platform StockX's latest State of Resale report predicts that women will be a key demographic driving sneaker resale in 2020.

Identifying exclusive sneaker releases as being particularly lucrative in the past year among female shoppers – StockX reports such sales doubled their share in the secondary market in 2019 – the report notes that the number of women identifying as ‘sneakerheads’ is likely to increase.

In addition to the growth potential of the women’s resale market, the report also highlights how Generation Z have become a key audience in the sneaker market, with one in three Generation Z consumers identifying as sneaker obsessives. As a result, StockX forecasts that younger shoppers will drive rapid growth in the secondary retail market in 2020.

As we uncover in our Women’s Streetwear Market, brands are recognising the potential for growth in an area that has traditionally been alienating for young women.

StockX, US

Stat: Young Britons face career disappointment

A new report from Education and Employers suggests that many UK teenagers are setting themselves up for disappointment when it comes to their career aspirations.

Five times as many 17- and 18-year-olds want to work in industries such as entertainment and sport as there are jobs available, showing a stark disconnection between ambition and opportunity. Just over half (51%) of the 7,000 teens surveyed noted they had no interest' in working in any sector outside of art, culture, entertainment and sport. Consequently, many teenagers are completely overlooking sectors such as hospitality and catering, which need almost seven times as many workers as those now showing interest.

As identified in our latest youth macrotrend Paradox Personas, young people are increasingly pushing back against irrelevant education, opting for alternatives that will give them skills beyond traditional learning and career paths.