Analysis: Next steps

Last week Next opened its most up-to-date store at the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield. Drapers went along on opening day to take a look and gauge customer reaction

The opening of Next's 44,000sq ft store in Sheffield's Meadowhall marks a year of frenzied activity at the business. The retailer has been updating its stores and ranges, as well as its external and internal branding and marketing.

Store makeovers are moving at pace, with the business spending £40 million on refurbishments this year. In the past fortnight alone it has handed over 12 stores to be revamped, according to its design consultant Dalziel & Pow.

Last week's Meadowhall opening is a blueprint for how Next will handle larger retail spaces in the future. It moves the look on from the last big store launch, unveiled this spring at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. There are 150 mannequins in the Meadowhall store, some positioned on impressively lit catwalks, to provide information on key looks and trends across men's, women's and kids' wear. There is also a strong sense of individual departments and product zones, such as in denim and footwear, which make the store simple to shop.

Chief executive Simon Wolfson says the business has worked hard on this over the past six months. He told Drapers: "The most important changes since Bluewater have been how we have treated the circulation space. We have also tried to emphasise a difference in finish for each area, which we can refresh every 18 months or so. There is also a lot more focus on internal displays and merchandising of the collections. We have reduced the options year-on-year by about 10% across the business, which instantly makes stores feel less dense and easier to shop."

Dalziel & Pow founder David Dalziel says that when stores such as Primark up the ante in terms of store design, it is important that the likes of Next also move up a notch. "We have received some great responses to the new Next formats," he says. "When we opened in Exeter a few weeks ago the feedback was that the store was looking much more upmarket, and that is where we want to take the look. The key is to make it more aspirational, without putting customers off. We have gone for a Malmaison hotel aesthetic in areas such as the women's fitting rooms. It is about designing up to that level of look for these new stores."

Dalziel says the return to a monochrome logo and black entrance demonstrates that Next is reclaiming its brand heritage. He says: "When Next launched its logo the stores were all about black and white, so we talked about reclaiming the colours and making them a real strength for the brand again."

He adds that being able to provide dedicated areas for footwear and lingerie has worked well at Meadowhall. "By fixing those zones, the others seem to have fallen into place naturally and the rest of the store has been easier to plan. Sometimes with a big space it helps that some areas are inflexible, because it instils a discipline and sets a path you can work from. Next excels at producing really good teams that can take on creative ideas and make them functional, which has been a real strength of the design process."

Every fixture in every part of the store can carry any type of stock, with the exception of footwear. The retailer and the designers have worked hard on making the fittings as flexible as possible.

Dalziel says: "The most notable changes since Bluewater are in the lighting. We have put in more spotlights and less ambient light. It means that some areas are a little darker than others – in fact we have deliberately let the light fade off in the more premium areas of the store. Because this is a new site, we were able to do far more with it than we were at Bluewater. We moved the escalators from the perimeter to the centre of the store. At Bluewater we were remodelling, so there was more compromise. But we will be able to roll out key aspects of this store to smaller formats. Every Next store will get a touch of the new look."