Blue Lagoon Skincare
Extending a destination experience to retail
Crafting a retail experience
Our longtime partner Blue Lagoon Iceland, one of the world’s great spa destinations, also has its own skincare line and a chain of retail stores. The Blue Lagoon shops are an extension of the destination. As such, they need to promote the brand’s skincare products, and at the same time educate customers about the spa and Blue Lagoon’s brand values.
Retail design for storytelling
Blue Lagoon’s challenge was that its customers often didn’t understand the connection between its retail products and the spa destination. Neither was it clear that the ingredients – the algae, the silica, and the minerals – are found in the blue lagoon’s water.
Our job was to design the Blue Lagoon shops so that the stores would better communicate the story of the Blue Lagoon and inform the customers about the unique healing ingredients found naturally in the lagoon’s water. We started our makeover of the Blue Lagoon retail experience with the Reykjavik city center store, located on the capital’s bustling main street Laugavegur.
The Ritual Bar
We envisioned the Ritual Bar, an entirely new retail concept where customers come in direct contact with the product ingredients, as well as the Blue Lagoon brand values.
The Ritual Bar underlines the connection between the raw ingredients of the Blue Lagoon water and the skincare products sold in the shops. It gives the company an opportunity to explain the products’ benefits to customers in a simple, effective way. In addition to sharing information and increasing customer awareness, it allows for personalized service.
"Ritual bar is the heart of the shop. When designing it, we aimed to create a very personal, low-tech service experience. Getting the design of the bar was important also because it’s completely open and thereby very visible to the clients. You can even peak in from outside, from the street."
Daria Svirid, Experiential Spaces Designer
Extending the destination experience to retail
In redesigning the interiors of the shop, we brought the overall feeling closer to that of the Blue Lagoon spa. We softened and upgraded materials to create a more natural, intimate space. The store’s surfaces are a smooth, warm Jatoba wood. The few screens are well integrated and toned down.
We custom designed all the furniture for the store, including a flexible shelving system that allows for various set-ups depending on the product selection. It features options for hooks, bags, shelf lines, clothing, frames for tags and communication materials. We also created the point-of-sale support system consisting of stands, trays, baskets and price tags.
Through clever spatial division, lighting and design features we also ensured that the shop stands out in the busy shopping district.
The shop is stylish, at the same time it's warm, bright, and beautifully set-up. The design is gorgeous and the display is faithful to the brand. The service caught the judges’ attention as well. The staff is ambitious, professional, and shows initiative. A visit to the Blue Lagoon shop on Laugavegur is a truly special experience."
Statement from the jury, Shop of the Year 2018 by the City of Reykjavik
Service design for the ultimate customer experience
The design of the shop was based on customer journeys building upon personas that our service design team had previously defined for Blue Lagoon Iceland.
The deep understanding of the customer experience helped us plan the space and the interiors of the shop to serve the customers in the best possible way. The personas and the customer journeys also served as a foundation for the Blue Lagoon team in planning the rest of the retail experience, including staffing.
Results
The Blue Lagoon store was opened in December 2018. In March 2019, it was chosen as the shop of the year by the City of Reykjavik, receiving the award Njarðarskjöldurinn – Shop of the Year 2018. We’re currently working on the transformation of the shops at the Reykjavik airport and Blue Lagoon spa in Grindavik.
