Who is digital on London's Regent Street?

This morning I was on London's Regent Street, so I thought I'd promenade up and down (from Oxford Circus, South to Piccadilly Circus) and check which of the mega brands here acknowledge their digital presence in window displays.

That's just the shop window, I didn't go into the store (incidently, West End stores have been slow to adopt in-store tech). In this instance I just wanted to see who pointed online from their front of store merchandising.

I was quite surprised. Some were good, and some were simple and clear. Others were token, and plenty didn't mention online at all.  

The shops I looked at that didn't have any mention of online:

• Armani
• Abercrombie & Fitch
• French Connection
• Levi's
• Apple
• Hamleys
• Uniqlo
• And lots more

Considering Regent St even has its own social hub, I think the stores could stand to do more with their displays to include stock and also details of online media. Not one of the shops I saw pointed explicitly to content online, such as YouTube vids or competitions.

Likely there are some stores with some of this inside, but they're missing all the window shoppers.

For those of you compulsive enough to enjoy looking at galleries of shop windows, here you go!

The best?

Clarks

This could be bigger, but it's got everything, mobile, online store, returns detail, QR code.

Clarks shows how easy it is to make an impact in the window display.

A card casually thrown into the best desert boots. Impactful and shows its creds once again.

 

Gant

Gant showing click and collect, and prominently showing their rugger line Twitter handle and hashtag.

Gant were overall one of the most impressive on my jaunt down Regent Street.

Piddly QR codes

Timberland

Good content promised here, '40 years of the original yellow boot', so perhaps a url, too, would have been appropriate.

United Nudes

Not the mosteye-catching, but it does link to email sign-up, the only one of these I came across.

 

Click and collect

A suprising lack of click and collect, I thought. Along with Gant, only Barbour's reseller were ahead of the game:

Barbour reseller, Highlands Store.

In-store wi-fi

Only one boasting of this service. Hats off to Ted Baker and The Cloud.

This pic features a little easter egg of your noble author.

Hashtag action

Burberry

The digital luxe pioneers of course have a trendy hashtag in their window.

#thisisbrit: an intriguing hashtag I think. And indeed, I've found a lovely Tumblr that goes with it.

Molton Brown

Trying to be a tease with its new 'Time to bare all, skin that's too good to hide' campaign.

I'm not sure what the hashtag adds here, or what we're meant to use it for. Hell, it's better than nothing.

 

Michael Kors

#watchhungerstop -No exposition here. I suppose this could intrigue me enough to make me check out the hashtag, after all, I did with the Burberry tag.

But this tag seems hidden away, not boldly on show, and it also sounds rather preachy rather than something that's going to supply me with content (that makes me bad, I know).

Perhaps in-store there's some more explanation. Again, better than nothing.

 

Web address

Kipling makes the good point: 'shop 24/7'.

After all, your shop front is on display all night long, when the doors aren't open. A nice little reminder to go online.

 

Hackett

Just about, though the sticker itself is nice and clear.

 

The Hackett window did come with a bonus badger.

And a bonus fox.

Zara 

Nice and clear from the behemoth that is Zara.

Austin Reed

Plain as you like, but present, at least.

Mango 

Good work from Mango.

Accessorize 

Accessorize doing well to publicise their website and sister website, Monsoon.

Desigual

Meh.

Could do better

Superdry seems a perfect fit with digital/social campaigns.

But there's nothing really in the window, and it doesn't feel very innovative.

 

Swarovski

Only just.

 

Gap

Although this looks nice and clear, it's actually on a fairly skinny door frame and is a bit out of the way. They probably should have something in the main windows.

Gap are associated with innovation in advertising, so I'd expect more by way of digital nod in its display.

& other stories

A fantastic new store owned by H&M, with a new website and seemingly all set to dominate.

But nothing in the shop window apart from what looks like a bullet hole. 

Econsultancy's How the Internet Can Save the High Street report contains more than 60 recommendations for retailers who want to succeed in a digital age, covering topics including in-store wi-fi, 'reserve and collect', in-store kiosks and 'pop-up shops'.