Project Overview
Greater Group were engaged by SkinKandy, Australia’s largest specialist body piercing and jewellery company, to redesign their store interior and improve customer experience. We worked with the client to evaluate their existing stores and make relevant recommendations. Greater Group provided services that included global benchmarking, existing store critique, concept design, detail documentation, and FF&E specification for new and refurbished store rollouts.
SkinKandy’s brief was to design a revamp of their stores whilst maintaining their existing brand colours of hot pink and black. The evolved design is a refreshing embodiment of the SkinKandy brand with new enticing aesthetics, optimised layout and enhanced customer journey that appeals to their key demographic of Gen-Z shoppers. The updated store layout maximises spatial efficiency, provides added privacy in treatment rooms and facilitates an engaging, experiential customer journey. Additions to the design such as the “Kandy Care” Instagram zone is aimed at their younger tech-savvy shoppers and extends the customer journey beyond the store environment. The renewed store design not only looks good but also performs well, as it has proven to be effective in generating sales: the addition of the “Kandy Bar” zone has led to a 300% increase in upgrades to premium piercing jewellery during initial consultations!
The new concept has been rolled out to 6 sites to date with 5 more currently being planned, it has been evolved further into a Kiosk design, that includes an elevated layer of Customer experience, being switch glass treatment rooms!
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Polly Glaysher Pagh – Design Lead
Kristy Wilkinson – Senior Designer
Randy Afriandi – Designer
Minny Chung – Graphic Designer
Project Brief
Think neon, hot pink and fun! The SkinKandy new concept store design grabs your attention from the outset! It was a true joy to design and customers are loving the new in-store experience.
After completing extensive global benchmarking research, it was clear that SkinKandy are leaders in their field, and the only national piercing studio in Australia that specialises in piercing and piercing jewellery, Greater Group advise SkinKandy that they have an opportunity to leverage this, it is a unique selling point that only they have. Their existing stores were based around the traditional retail layout of wall displays, with large POS counters and no self-selecting tools or clear customer journey. The brief from SkinKandy was that they didn’t want to completely redo their retail stores, but to evolve them and provide an improved customer experience, focusing on their key target demographic of Gen-Z, this is where Greater Group came in!
To improve the customer experience, we fully immersed ourselves in the piercing journey by visiting the SkinKandy store in Eastlands shopping centre and getting a new piercing, going through this process and observing customers in the space gave us a clear insight into the opportunities to improve the customer experience and store design. In addition to this, we also highlighted an opportunity to build on the SkinKandy brand and bring this narrative into the space in product selection and zones that guide the customer on their purchasing or piercing journey.
Project Innovation/Need
Greater Group created a fresh and modern design that appeals to Gen Z shoppers. The large cash desk was removed and replaced with various in-store destination zones to guide customers through their piercing journey. First is the ‘Kandy Bar’ where you have your piercing consultation with the SkinKandy specialist, following your treatment you are guided to ‘Kandy Care’ where you are provided with aftercare information, finalise any payment transactions and finally utilising the pink backdrop with call-to-action signage “Insta that new Kandy!” to take a selfie and post it on your social with #piercedbysk tagged!
These zones also included a multipurpose central joinery unit that houses the premium range of jewellery as well as a black gloss wall at the front for a large brand statement. The rear houses the key storage area while the POS has been condensed to the side. The central unit was designed to block views into the treatment rooms to provide an added layer of privacy for customers during their piercing journey.
A subtle, soft pink was introduced to the colour palette to modernise and soften the existing SkinKandy brand colours. The flooring was also modernised by using large raw concrete-look floor tiles while the wall bays and floor displays were revamped with sub-categories that assist the customer in self-selection. We built on the SkinKandy brand to create fun names for the categories such as ‘Essential Kandy’ for popular on-trend SKUs and ‘Midriff Magic’ for belly button jewellery.
Design Challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic posed various challenges throughout the project. With lockdown regulations in place for most of 2020, we only met the client virtually and conducted all design meetings and presentations via zoom, including to the Hanes Board. Despite this challenge, we created and maintained a quality collaborative spirit during the design stage as well as seamless communications between teams and the client. With everyone working from home material specifications were reviewed and approved between the Greater Group team out of a car boot, socially distanced, in a 5K overlap area in Albert Park Lake! Even though we had only met the client digitally, we succeeded in establishing a great connection and working relationship with the SkinKandy team. This project is truly a testament to what can be achieved through modern technology and strong teamwork.
Additionally, we were tasked with assessing the client’s existing retail store model to make relevant recommendations and deliver improved store design guidelines. Any changes or recommendations made to the store design model had to be considerate of the established SkinKandy brand identity to ensure consistency across the retail network. A thorough understanding of the client’s history, Gen Z target market and business model was required to create an impactful and future-proof design that would serve the brand’s long-term goals while providing a meaningful, engaging customer journey.
Sustainability
Greater Group philosophy on sustainability is that the choices we make now, will affect the future of both companies and impact on our planet for years to come, whilst maintaining our clients, commercial interests as our foremost priority, we will use our product knowledge and supplier contacts to provide specifications with the intent of making our designs greener.
Throughout the SkinKandy store design, we used a variety of finishes that contain recycled and eco-friendly materials. All joinery was designed to be fully modular which allows for bulk procurement and minimised waste.
The main floor concrete tiles from Integra contain 10% recycled content and zero VOCs while the Tarkett treatment room vinyl flooring is Green Tag Level A-certified, EPD-verified and rated Best Practice PVC under the Green Star Responsible Building Material Credit 20.3. The pink upholstery from Instyle does not contain conflict minerals, has reduced energy and water use, and is a solution-dyed product of waste recycling. It is also free of phthalates, flame retardant and anti-bacterial additives (ADF); lead, BPA, TRIS + formaldehyde. The pink laminate from Wilson Art is SCS Recycled Content-certified and conforms to the SCS Recycled Content Standard V7-0 for a minimum of 34% post-consumer recycled wood fibre content.
Interior Design - Retail
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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