GU next-gen Style Studio to open in Harajuku this month

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 12, 2018

Uniqlo may get the lion’s share of attention when it comes to Fast Retailing news, but the parent company’s GU chain is also doing interesting things and the brand is about to open a ‘next-generation’ store in Japan.

The “innovative” Gu Style Studio, complete with digital signage and an app, will open on November 30 in Harajuku, the key Tokyo fashion and shopping neighbourhood. 

The store “links online and in-store shopping,” we’re told and “will offer a new type of personalised fashion experience, enabling customers to discover outfits that perfectly match their individual style, using the innovative technology of the GU Style Creator Stand” and the new app.

The Style Creator Stand is a “special type of digital in-store signage that is unique to the store,” GU said. “Customers can create their own personal digital avatar, using a photo taken at the stand. Customers can then see how they would look in a wide range of GU styles simply by adding items digitally from the men's and women's collections to their avatar.”

When a customer finds something they like, they can link the personal avatar to their own account on the Style Creator app. 

Gu said that this means “they can continue experimenting with new items and styles with greater freedom and self-expression as they move through the store at their own pace, trying new styles using their own device and personal avatar.”

Saving the items to the app and ordering, delivery and collection are all “easy” and “convenient”, the company claims, with the whole Style Studio approach being all about making “the entire shopping process, from selection of items to purchase and delivery, both simple and enjoyable.”