Sports Direct Birmingham New Street
Officially open from May 5th 2022; Sports Direct’s latest digitally immersive flagship store, located in the heart of Birmingham. Spread over 4 floors and filled with immersive tech, the store sets the standard for sports retailers across the UK.
With over 6 months of planning, and 6 weeks of onsite work we have worked directly with Sports Direct, Frasers Group, The One Off, and EB Designs to bring this colossal space to life. Not only have we installed solutions directly for Sports Direct, but also for 7 premium brands holding departments within the store including Nike, Adidas and Under Armour to help create immersive brand displays and experiences.
Sports Direct; Expanding the phygital world
A few years ago Sports Direct decided to take a new approach to their physical spaces, which saw them redesign their conventional store blueprint. Stepping away from their old approach of traditional, and paper signage, Sports Direct wanted to transition towards creating flagship stores that were digitally immersive and reflective of a new forward thinking brand identity.
Nottibly, the Thurrock and most recently Oxford Street stores saw the Sports Direct begin to transition towards its new identity. The stores were designed with digital solutions in mind, including interactive selfie booths, LED video walls, LCD touch screens, lift and learn technology and clever analytics.
Their latest flagship, Birmingham New Street has yet again elevated their store presence and personified their brand identity. Six months in the making, the store finally opened on the 6th of May 2022 with over 130sqm of LED installed across the store, over 2100 individual LED tiles and 6KM of data cables.
Sports Direct; Birmingham New Street
Spanning 4 floors, the dazzling LED window displays are enough to catch any bypassers eye. Controlled with a Scala CMS, the content is continually changing and can be easily updated based on new campaigns, products and demand in the area.
The digital displays don’t stop there, after entering the store, customers are greeted with more digital signage across all levels With over 60 screens in total; 19 LCD and 24 LED, not only for Sports Direct but also for the brands within the store like Nike, Adidas, Puma and Under Armour. The displays appear in a mix of formats from large scale video walls, to LED ticker displays and POS locked down ecommerce touch screens to interactive gamified displays.
The Atrium
Most dazzling of all; the atrium show piece, spanning across 3 levels of the store, accounting for 65Sqm of LED alone. As customers travel from one lever to another, they are surrounded by a 360º LED displays, wrapped around the balcony of each floor from the bottom of the store to the top. For this solution, we used the latest AVoIP equipment, meaning the content on all of these 360º displays can be completely synchronized displaying the same content across all levels.
The Jump Booth
After the success of the Xi Jump Booth in the Oxford Street store, we brought it to the new Birmingham store. The bespoke jump booth will play on users’ sporting competitiveness. The booth measures just how high players can jump using body recognition technology. The installation then creates a slow-motion playback and allows individuals to cement their positions on a leader board and take the content away with them.
In-store Analytics
To help Sports Direct continue to get to know their consumers, just like the Oxford Street store, the Birmingham New Street store also boasts a whole underframe of technology. Clever analytic software ensures the smooth, and intelligent, running of the operation. These installs allow the Sports Direct team, both in store and from head office, to act on the information gathered. Based on real time updates the team can edit and update content accordingly to ensure visits are converted to sales.
Intelligent displays mean visuals can be instantaneously changed based on reactions from the viewer. Heat mapping can also be analyzed through our in-store camera system. This allows for ongoing monitoring and modifications to gain the most out of the space available. Understanding customer flow, dwell time and metrics such as age, gender and mood is key for future store planning and gaining deep insights into customer habits.
We’re delighted to have worked on another outstanding Sports Direct project that truly represents the forward thinking identity behind the brand.
With the Birmingham New Street install, you can see the Sports Direct vision continue to grow as they continue to strive to deliver the ultimate customer experience using our cutting edge technology.
Josh Bunch
CEO & Founder, inurface media
