We love working with brands on Flagship Stores. However, opening a Flagship Store is not a task that should be taken on lightly.

In helping to launch Flagship Stores we have run into a few challenges that retailers need to be aware of to best plan for, and we would like to share our wisdom.

Location Challenges

While location remains an important aspect of creating a Flagship Store, it can also be one of the biggest challenges. Since many Flagship Stores are located in high-end areas of major cities, they also happen to be located in historic districts.

Historic districts can be more difficult to work within, because a brand can not simply come in a build their store from scratch. They must preserve the building they move into within the guidelines of the particular district. Going into a project, the brand must know that logistics and permitting will be a top priority in planning for their Flagship location.

Creating a “Wow” Factor

Simply by attaching the name “Flagship Store” to a location, a customer has greater expectations. The enhanced experiences must be there for the tourists, but the functionality must still be there for the local customers.

While budget and time allocated are normally three to five times greater for a Flagship Store compared to other retail locations, there still are time and budget restrictions. Therefore, coming up with huge and expensive showpieces may not be realistic for every project. We discuss making smart choices in investments in our post, 4 Steps to a Positive ROI from In-Store Digital Signage.

Is Your Flagship Store Scalable?

The bigger experiences of a Flagship Store may be overwhelming in a smaller store. The Flagship Store may also be up to 10 times as big as smaller stores in a chain, making fitting in everything impossible.

One of the reasons we recommend designing for smaller stores before designing for the Flagship Store is scalability.  Some features of a Flagship Store may work within smaller stores, for example we put a 60″ version of our mobile station into the Queens Center Mall Time Warner Cable Store, inspired by the 90″ version in the Flagship Store. But this example is an exception, not a rule.

If you are interested in learning more about Flagship Stores, please also see the previous posts in this series, What is a Flagship Store, Hidden Benefits of a Flagship Store, and Don’t Design for a Flagship Store First.