What: Vogue Business review the disrupting new retailers across the world.

Why it is important: Products and brands curations are not a competitive advantage anymore. It is all about connecting digital and physical, having the right community and making sure the retailer brand’s perception is the right one… while also being profitable, which is not the case of all the stores presented in the article.

Vogue business reviews the state of retail in 2023, at a moment when players are challenged on their competitive advantages after two years of pandemic, the rise of e-commerce and customers’ new habits. Vogue has identified new generation retailers focused on communities, not products anymore (not seen as a differentiating point anymore now that most brands are sold everywhere), and a seamless connection between the store and the digital dimension.

Terminal 27 in Los Angeles stocks a mix of luxury labels and more confidential ones, in a space positioned to be a meeting point for stylists and creative people. The store also funds some emerging labels, allowing to purchase their products at cost and not at wholesale price, thus maximising the margin. The website is a Web3 platform that rewards its community with an NFT after a certain amount of purchases.

Wow Concept in Madrid relies on a very strict brand curation, and appeals to DNVB sold through an app that allows customers to shop both inside and outside the physical store. Out of the 400 brands represented online, only 250 are sold in the store.

032c in Berlin has opened its first physical store in July 2022 as a spin-off of the fashion magazine and a RTW label. The retailers relies on opening physical stores in hip locations to expand and local communities, excited by a multi-brand offer not available anywhere else.

The new faces of retail in 2023