Danish general merchandise retailer Tiger demonstrates that less can indeed be more with its first foray into the London Underground network.

Putting a store with a big offer in a small space where shoppers are less likely to have time to browse presents a challenge for any retailer, but that is what’s required if you are to make it as a ‘travel retailer’.

Tiger, the retailer that looks like a cross between Ikea’s Marketplace and a technicolour Muji, has just opened its first store in a Tube station, specifically St James’s Park. This is a small space: it measures just 700 sq ft and there are a mere 350 SKUs on offer. Yet, owing to some deft merchandising and canny LED spotlights, it feels bigger and gives the sense there is an awful lot to choose from.

The trick is probably that, instead of having graphics on the walls like a normal Tiger store would, in this instance the product is put to work as a graphic. Simple stuff, really, but it is surprising how readily some retailers think a travel retail unit just means taking a big store and making it smaller. It does not.