Benetton Group has launched an important programme to strengthen its sales network, which will lead to the opening of numerous new stores in Italy and in the main cities of the world by the end of 2019.
The ambitious plan represents another step forward in the brand’s new course and aims to transform United Colors of Benetton stores into the home of colours, knitwear, light and innovation.
The new network development strategy is taking shape through two store concepts, which will offer customers an innovative purchasing experience and a genuine immersion in the brand’s DNA. The first, the new“Light Colors”, was conceived by Benetton’s Retail Design department, with the help of architect Tobia Scarpa. An agile and streamlined concept for a quick, efficient and flexible commercial roll out. “Co coren fen fin fum!” (“We run so fast, we leave a smoke trail!”): this is how Scarpa, in Venetian dialect, refers to Benetton’s new strategic phase, aimed at accelerating the development of the sales network.
In an international retail market which is evolving constantly and at a surprising pace, Benetton’s Retail Design department – always looking for new solutions to meet customers’ needs and expectations – has developed Light Colors to be easily adaptable to the vast network of United Colors of Benetton wholesale and franchising stores.
The first “Light Colors” stores will be inaugurated in Spring/Summer 2019 in Novara, Corso Italia 6, in Rome, Via del Corso andin Palermo, Via Sciuti. Abroad, the new store concept has already debuted in Istanbul, where in the past few days Turkey’s largest Benetton shop has reopened with this new format. More openings will follow in Italy – in Faenza, Naples and Trapani – and in other foreign locations, including Bangalore and Deauville, to name a few.
The store concept introduced in the Londonflagship, which opened in March 2018, will be the reference model for stores located in the major commercial hubs: after London, the concept debuted also in Düsseldorf, Padua and Turin, in 2018, and will soon also arrive in the Benetton Paseo de Gracia (Barcelona) and Connaught Place, New Delhi, flagships.
The “London concept”, entirely developed by Benetton’s Retail Design department, is an informal and technological space that goes beyond the traditional idea of a store. A shop that, from being a simple space dedicated to sales, becomes an urban and contemporary showroom where a 360° story of the United Colors of Benetton brand is staged and where the shopping experience is increasingly omnichannel.
The new openings mark a decisive step in the development of the sales network: today, Benetton Group has an extensive distribution platform of around 5,000 stores worldwide.
