Made.com claims to be a tech company, yet its new Paris store confirms it treads the fine line between etailer and bricks-and-mortar merchant.

The company has opened a second major ‘studio’, this time in Paris, with a ground floor and a basement offering a showroom area close to 7,000 sq ft – a significantly large space in the centre of the French capital. And although those visiting it cannot walk out with anything that they may have set their heart on, it does have elements about it that could be considered as retail.

Principal among these is the browsing that takes place, as potential online shoppers see and touch the product, compile a digital want list and then perhaps go firm on a purchase over a glass of wine back at home. The showroom design is the work of London-based gpstudio and with its combination of semi-sculptural visual merchandising and digital storytelling (shoppers can wave a tablet close to a product and information about it appears on the screen) this is a retail space with a digital backbone.

Topics