New John Lewis store in Oxford to be 'a paradise' of shopping experiences

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 20, 2017

John Lewis’s new managing director Paula Nickolds has talked about the importance of the shopping experience and the retailer’s new store in Oxford will put this approach to the test with a myriad of services for shoppers.

Opening next Tuesday, the new 120,000 sq ft shop will have one fifth of its floor space dedicated to services and experiences and will offer a total of 21 different services, such as travel advice, eye tests and children’s car seat fitting advice.

Brand new services like a free personal shopping service for men, technology training workshops and John Lewis's first express Nail and Brow bar will complement the company’s existing range of experiences such as bra fitting advice and personal styling for women.

There will be an Experience Desk where customers will be offered a 'concierge style' service to help them plan their day, and the department store will offer 'hotel style' tours to show customers around the new shop.

Staff will be also trialling a new uniform. The outfits will change each season to showcase key items from the department store’s own brand range Kin.

The shopping experience drive is part of a strategy from John Lewis to lure shoppers back to its stores as more consumers leave the high street for online shopping due to convenience.

Paula Nickolds, who said John Lewis needs to be reinvented to survive the new retail landscape, said the shop will be “a place where customers come and experience our brand - the physical manifestation of what we stand for”.

“More than a route to selling things, our Oxford shop is a place that aims to inspire and delight our customers and is entirely focused on customer experience with partners and finishing details at the heart of that.”

The Oxford store will anchor the new Westgate development, which also opens on Tuesday 24 October. The three-floor space will stock 55,000 products and more than one thousand different brands.