A system of movable product displays allows beauty retailer Super Seed to continuously change the space creating an agile and memorable in-person shopping experience.

Key features
For plant-based skincare brand Super Seed, F.O.G. Architecture designed a 300-sq-m store in Hangzhou, China. An agile product display system made of 198 moveable, semi-transparent acrylic boxes, is central to the store’s design. The boxes are suspended on metal cables, which can be moved vertically to continuously create different product configurations and in-store activations. Plants encased in acrylic and glass boxes and the use of natural materials like wood speak to the brand’s association with natural ingredients. Large panels of opaque acrylic and sheet metal in the form of countertops and white backlit showcases are the dominant materials applied throughout.

Frame’s take
Static retail spaces are less competitive in a market dominated by the convenience of e-commerce. To maintain a prime market position, bricks-and-mortar retailers must present consumers with something that can only be accessed in real life. Being memorable in today’s retail landscape implies that a space is agile and responsive. Each time a customer enters, the only thing they can expect is that they aren’t sure what to expect. This type of in-store activation is not perceived as ingenuine or superfluous because its functionality legitimizes it. The in-built agility of the beauty space resonates in the age of experience-led retail because achieves its memorability factor in tandem with functionality.