How Printemps implemented a virtual store in just 70 days

At CXN Live: Future of CX 2022 Morgane Lopes, global e-commerce director at France-based fashion retailer Printemps, offered attendees an overview of a unique and innovative virtual store experience that the department store has recently launched.

Lopes shared how the experience leverages virtual reality along with NFTs as potential rewards for shopping in the store and discusses how the business was able to launch the initiative in just 70 days.

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Printemps has created a unique virtual store experience

Lopes began the session by sharing details of the metaverse-based experience the retailer has recently launched. Printemps wanted to offer one-of-a-kind experiences to its customers and achieved this via a unique approach which leverages a virtual store concept.

Customers that shop in the virtual store now have the opportunity to win non-fungible tokens (NFTs) when purchasing products, adding a new incentive to shop with the brand. Further to this, the virtual store also leverages some unique design features.

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The virtual store simulates what it would be like to shop at their physical flagship store, with customers able to view the architecture of the store and view products as though they were physically present.

Lopes explains: “Customers can wander the store as though they are in a video game using the mobile app, they can view the virtual store from floor to ceiling and really feel like they are surrounded by the atmosphere.”

This unique virtual store experience helps to differentiate Printemps from the competition, particularly in an age where many would prefer to shop from home but may miss the in-store experience.

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Printemps launches virtual store in 70 days

With only two and a half months to create and design this innovative virtual store, Printemps was facing a major challenge to get it live on time.

“We had to define the role of the experience and the strategy but also to design, to develop, to launch the store and finalize the communication plan to create traffic and visibility. There were ups and downs but because of the limited time, we were forced to make quick decisions that we could not go back on, which actually helped because this gave the team a feeling of being proactive and productive.”

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While Lopes recognizes that this quick moving approach helped the team to be decisive and move the project along rapidly, unfortunately it did mean that the business was unable to explore all of the ideas that it wanted to. Printemps dealt with this by focusing on what the minimum viable product would be to clearly delineate what would and would not be possible, allowing it to set clear goals and focus only on features that could actually be implemented.

Catch up with CXN Live: Future of CX 2022 on-demand to hear more CX industry experts share their thoughts on what the future of CX holds.