Always on the cutting-edge of magical entertainment and merchandise, the house that Walt built is relaunching its retail experience. Going live today, shopDisney is a revamped e-commerce destination offering the best of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel products.
In tandem with the new online shopping hub, a prototype for a new Disney store design is also being rolled out in select locations worldwide, combining retail, technology, storytelling and cast member interaction to create a personalized, magical shopping experience.
The stores are also elevating the customer journey so, from kids and families to millennials, visitors can navigate a new range of categories including Trend Fashion & Accessories, Toys, Home, Collectibles and Parks merchandise.
“No one creates experiences like Disney and our pilot stores will be testing grounds for interactive features that will differentiate the Disney shopping experience in the changing retail landscape,” says Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive.
“Online, shopDisney is the ultimate destination for the most extensive collection of curated merchandise from our stores, parks, and licensed partners. This combination creates a powerful omnichannel experience that represents the next generation of Disney retail.”
The amount of Disney Parks merchandise and ‘Create Your Own’ customizable products also has been doubled.
“We know our fans are looking for a one-stop-shop to find the most compelling product out there and with shopDisney we are uniquely positioned to curate the very best of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel merchandise,” says Paul Gainer, EVP Disney Retail. “We’ve also added product categories and brands that speak to new audiences following the success of our collaborations in the fashion space.”
Those brands include Coach, Le Creuset, Spyder, Steiff and rag & bone, inspiring themed offerings and exclusive capsule collections on the site’s shop-in-shop “The IT List,” which at launch include SIWY denim featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse and NCLA’s Disney Princess and Villain nail wraps.
Expanding on the core child-centric fare and traditional store lay-outs, Disney stores will now showcase giant LED screens to leverage the company’s storytelling tradition.
“We are a storytelling company and our vision was to create a retail space that reflected our heritage,” said Gainer. “Our stores are destinations and gathering places for fans of our iconic brands, and are often their closest physical Disney touch point so creating an authentic brand experience is key.”
Disney cast members and characters will engage with guests in interactive experiences such as opening the store each day (just as the in-person Disney park experience starts each day) with a special Welcome Celebration, along with learning and play activities in the in-store Play Room for kids and personalized celebrations for guests of all ages.
Employees can tailor experiences for a child’s birthday, celebrating achievement on a report card or any other personal milestone the family wishes to celebrate.
Bringing the real-world park experience into stores, every afternoon, guests can watch the iconic ‘LIVE from Disney Parks’ parade down Main Street streamed onto video screens, and each evening a specially created digital fireworks display will be shown on a giant storefront screen.
The new Disney store concept is being trialed in Century City, Calif. and Northridge, Calif. in the US, as well as in Nagoya, Japan and the two-year-old location in Shanghai, China—the world’s largest Disney store. Coming soon: Miami, Fla. and Munich, Germany, are next in line for the retail refresh.
The first Disney store opened in 1987 and today there are more than 200 Disney locations in North America; more than 40 in Japan; a flagship China location in Shanghai; and more than 70 stores in Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom plus online stores.
The unified e-commerce and in-store experience is designed to delight and engage, and shows that Disney isn’t immune to the retail sector’s slump of declining visits to brick-and-mortar stores by consumers across the retail industry.
As Bloomberg notes, “Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, has had its interest in retailing ebb and flow over the years. The company once sold and then bought back its stores division. Today, the company has about 340 retail locations around the world, about a third of their peak.”
What’s more, it needs another a big hit to drive online and offline shopping visits, Bloomberg adds:
“Lower foot traffic at malls and a flight to online shopping has hurt Disney like it has other retailers. Sales in Disney’s retail unit fell 6 percent to $1.71 billion in the fiscal year that ended in October 2016 and 10 percent, to $1.21 billion, in the nine months of 2017. The company also hasn’t had a movie in a while that inspired the same level of shopping frenzy as Frozen and Star Wars: The Force Awakens did.”
“We knew we needed to elevate and improve the experiences that we have both in stores and online as retail is changing,” Gainer told Reuters. Now, the hope is a more seamless, personalized and dynamic online and offline retail experience will boost that number for continued growth.
Find out more in the videos below:
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