Shop Report - & Other Stories

As part of our trip to London, we had to do a shop report. As a group we decided to go into a shop that none of us have ever been in before and that happened to be & Other Stories. I attempted to take some photos sneakily but I ended up spending most of my time walking around this amazing shop that all of us left feeling amazed. 

The outside of the store was very simple but cool like the inside. Each side of the big glass doors were a portrait light box style sign with the simple logo and road name which I personally thought looked very chic and sold the company well as the inside sits well with the way the logo looks. However there was a huge sign which lit up like the smaller sign but looked slightly tacky. The logo was spaced out between about 8 smaller light boxes and wasn't that clear. As it is a shop, a big sign is quite important to 1) to show the shop is actually there and 2) to encourage customers to visit the store. I think the bigger sign let the store down a bit but you don't actually notice it when you're just walking past the store, You actually see the smaller sign first so in a way it does still work. But for me personally I thought the bigger sign was a little bit of a let down - this however didn't change my opinion of the beautiful shop.  There wasn't any clothing as such in the windows which i actually think works quite well as you could see straight into the store and see whats going on before you enter. But it doesn't spoil whats inside which i think they've done very well. 

When you first walk into the store what you see straight away is what you get the whole way through the store. Everything links to what you first see which I don't think many shops can manage to do that. The use of the wooden cabinet drawers that you would see in someones house or office give a really chic cool classy look to the store. 

My first impression of & Other Stories was that it was very clean, everything was perfectly place and completely different to any other shop with a similar price range. The choice of clothing that they put into the store seems to be very cleverly pick out so that each area of the shop goes together which really makes the store look put together. I loved how carefully placed all the jewellery, accessories and make up was. It gave an almost gallery style look to these areas. It was almost like you didn't want to touch it because it looked so beautiful the way it was. Again very different from any other shops was or presenting jewellery, accessories and make up. One part of the store which weirdly made me happy was how nice looking the sale signs were. Typically they are red with bold white writing across them but in & Other Stories, They were a light baby pink which i thought was a nice touch. They fitted in perfectly with the rest of the store and told you there was a sale but it wasn't in your face or messy. The sales were a little bit dis organised like all sale racks are but did still look nice. 

 It was a very comfortable store to walk around as it wasn't packed full of people but it was busy and everyone was very calm which made me feel calm and happy to be there. The trends around the store were very knitwear based along with unique simple work wear stye pieces which are still very fashion forward. There were a lot of black and blues, they seemed to be the key colours of their clothing for AW. 

SWOT

Strengths - The store was clean, contemporary, different, perfectly placed and originals. Everything in the store was different to anything you can get in all the other stores similar out there. The shop has a wide range of products, make up, beauty products, accessories, clothing, shoes, underwear and Jewellery.  Its a new store to the UK which i think gives the store an advantage as its new and exciting. 

Weaknesses - I don't think the shop has a huge amount of weaknesses but there are a few. Firstly there is only one store in the UK and its in London which means its not getting the same amount of customers as a shop such as Topshop. Although it is new store so branching out maybe something they will do in the future. The other weakness is the website, In my opinion it doesn't reflect how good the store looks in person. The website is very basic and not contemporary and chic at all. The website definitely needs development.

Opportunities - As this store develops its customers and gets more and more sales. I think working with magazines will become something quite big for them as they are very unique.

Threats - One of the biggest threats to them is that even though they have amazing products, some of the prices are quite high for an hughstreet store and there is shops that sell similar things for a lot cheaper - especially on the jewellery and accessories front. Zara and Urban Outfitters have similar pieces for cheaper. 

There was a very wide range of people shopping in the store. From a younger audience such as myself to older ladies. Everything in the store would suit many different ages and I think thats one of the best things about the store and what makes it unique.