The best of 2011: The top three retail Seeds of the year

London, Hong Kong – My three favourite retail Seeds of 2011 are all experience-based and show how retailers are engaging with their customers through emotive activities.

Several virtual shopping walls have popped up this year but the most memorable was for Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out in London and New York. The Net-A-Porter Window Shop appeared as vinyl digital projections and made available to consumers via a special mobile app. To shop at the windows consumers downloaded the dedicated Aurasma app and held up their mobiles in front of digital screens offering more information about items and could buy products on the night for delivery the next day.

Luxury Chinese lifestyle brand Shanghai Tang created a mini retail festival with its Mongolian Village during November and December. The temporary outdoor shopping experience on the rooftop of one of Hong Kong harbour’s central piers was designed to evoke the traditional nomadic lifestyle of Mongolia, and featured six traditional yurts as retail tents. I was impressed by this mix of transient, seasonal retail that is highly immersive and a good example of how brands are tapping into the trend for Conviviality Culture.

Throughout May, Diesel gave customers the opportunity to take part in lessons, workshops, field trips and DIY events across a cultural sphere for its School of Island Life programme. In keeping with the Italian fashion brand’s irreverent approach and to tie in with its Diesel Island marketing campaign, customers could sign up for events by obtaining passports from the brand’s stores. My personal highlight was a taxidermy lesson from expert Charlie Tuesday Gates.