Burberry opens virtual store with Elle Digital in Japan

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 19, 2021

Burberry is continuing to focus on tech innovation in the all-important Asia market and has just announced a new digital project. It has worked with Elle Digital Japan to create an “interactive virtual replica of its flagship Ginza store”.

It’s live from Friday until April 18 on Elle Japan and Ellegirl Digital Japan, as well as at http://burberry-ginza.com.

Digital has proved to be a winner for Burberry in Asia generally from a succession of live-streaming events to fashion gaming, and its social retail store in China’s technology hub Shenzhen in a deal with Tencent.

The company said all of this is aiming to push the “boundaries through creativity, exploring the relationship between physical and digital experiences to create exciting new concepts for its community and enhance personalised luxury commerce”.

As to the new virtual store itself, customers will be able to navigate themselves around the store and buy items from the brand’s SS21 collection by selecting digital icons.

It’s an interesting development for online retail that moves beyond the idea of separating e-commerce from physical retail in favour of fully replicating the physical store experience. That’s perhaps crucial for luxury that has, at times, struggled with embracing e-tail due to its inability to fully convey the kind of luxury experience consumers would find in-store.

While the e-location mirrors the physical Burberry Ginza store, the digital experience also goes beyond a simple replication of the space itself with the retailer and the magazine having collaborated with actress Elaiza Ikeda to create five short styling tip films. These are accessible at touchpoints throughout the virtual store.

The virtual space is built over three floors. The ground floor offers bags including the Olympia, the Pocket and the Lola Bags. 

The first floor offers a selection of womenswear, including key outerwear pieces. These include the Waterloo and Kensington trench coats in Honey, and Camden-fit car coats in black, updated with graffitied logo detail. Pieces from the wider SS21 collection include a marine-sketch print T-shirt, a lightweight hooded jacket highlighted with a check pattern, and an oversized hoodie updated with Horseferry print. 

On the second floor, there’s menswear, with outerwear including the Pimlico car coat and Horseferry print nylon car coat, both in black. SS21 styles include an olive fish-scale print silk twill short-sleeve shirt with graphic appliqués and a deep orange Horseferry print hoodie.