The mega-store has well and truly arrived in the local high-street for apparel: extensive varnished spaces with glossy floors, teeming with fabric and accessories. Shelves reserved for unstitched lawn nudge against displays for prêt; the womenswear leads off to menswear and accessories glint colourfully from the corners. There are sitting areas for when shoppers get tired and an array of changing rooms to facilitate wardrobe trials. Spacious and usually well-stocked, a large outcropping of these stores now dots the local retail landscape, growing proportionally to the mega-mall boom in the country.

The malls offer large retail spaces and customer footfall tends to ensure considerable daily sales for most stores. And possibly every brand worth its mettle now has a standalone presence at some mall or the other; from long-time stalwarts like Gul Ahmed, Al-Karam Textiles and Nishat Linen to younger game-changers such as Khaadi and Sapphire to the latest contenders to enter the periphery: Lakhany Silk Mills (LSM) and Orient Textiles. Customers are quite visibly accustomed now to mega-stores and brands are eager to enamour them with their retail outlets.

But opening a mega-store can’t possibly be easy. Rents at malls, for one, are catastrophically high, often making it difficult for brands to break even in the initial years following the opening. The increasing competition can also make it difficult to make a mark — usually large high street stores line up in a mall side-by-side with each other, all clustering for a slice of the same lucrative market pie.

Fancy stores may offer experience but distinctive designs would make the trip worth it

Additionally, with all and sundry jumping onto the mega store bandwagon, brands work hard to stand apart from the crowd. Large budgets are splurged out on interiors. Sapphire’s stores have a trademark white varnish with birds suspended from the ceiling, fountains holding court in central zones and leafy green plants popping out here and there. Khaadi’s many stores across the country and abroad have earthy brown interiors set off with geometric installations. Sana Safinaz opt for a luxe effect, with chandeliers, tasteful vases and plush couches within their stores.

At Karachi’s Lucky One Mall, the just-opened Orient Textiles store is resplendent with shiny lacquered floors worked with monochrome zig-zags, artistic ceiling installations and strategically positioned racks for unstitched fabric, apparel, quirky handbags and home accessories. Similarly, the LSM store on Karachi’s Tipu Sultan Road — another new contender — comes with a sequestered prayer area and spaces allotted to different ranges.

But one wonders if mega stores are actually necessary? After all, each and every one of these retail brands is targeting a mass market, with prices that begin at an affordable 2,000 rupees or even less. Why spend so much on interiors and rentals when the prices of the stock itself are economical?

THE ‘CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE’ FACTOR

“We’re just starting out and we want to allow customers to experience our brand rather than assail them with racks upon racks of stock as soon as they enter our store,” observes Amjad Rafiq, Director of Orient Textiles. “It’s why we have opted for a minimalist, widely spaced entrance to our store. People can buy if they wish to do so but they should also be able to appreciate our vision.”

Khaadi can certainly be credited for being a pioneer in this aspect, having driven home the importance of giving customers the ‘retail experience’. Before Khaadi stores launched in quick succession across the country, high street stores didn’t bother much with stylish decors or well-conceived spacing of stock. A well-lit large store piled high with fabric would suit their purpose. But the Khaadi stores set a standard in motion with its uniform, understated décor and even the same Coke Studio soundtracks playing in each and every outlet. “It’s allowed customers to take ownership of the brand. They enjoy the familiar feel of a Khaadi store and the service that we provide to them at each and every outlet,” says Khaadi’s CEO Shamoon Sultan. 

On a similar vein, Sapphire has chosen to enamour customers not just with savvy décor but also with a chic café placed in a central location within most stores. “It adds value to our brand,” explains Sapphire’s CEO Nabeel Abdullah. “Customers can sit and have a cup of coffee while shopping. They can truly enjoy the store rather than simply go there to stock up on clothes.”

THINKING IN THE LONG-TERM

Additionally, many high-street contenders take up large spaces in preparation for long-term goals. The three-year-old Sapphire, for instance, has plans to launch into new lines very soon. Among them will be a children’s line and a makeup range. “I am preparing for the next 20 years every time I open up a large store,” says Abdullah. “As Sapphire expands, I don’t want to be stuck with a small store that doesn’t have enough space to hold my entire stock. Right now, as malls open across the country, large spaces are available for rent. Later, these locations will not be there.”

“My store in Dolmen City Mall in Karachi, for instance, is too small. It is in a key location and yet, it cannot hold our complete range of seasonal shoes and accessories. I don’t want that to happen again.”

THE FLIP SIDE

And yet, for all their ambitiously designed mega-stores, high street brands have lately been overlooking the chief factor that makes a brand stand out in the long term: good design. Within these shiny big stores, there often lies stock that is boring and similar looking to the point that one brand cannot be differentiated from the other. Tunics with busy prints dominate, unimaginative embroideries on necklines and sleeves are pitched constantly and retailers can’t seem to let go of their hackneyed obsession with digital prints. Unstitched fabric, similarly, tends to follow mundane lines; the floral prints merged with swathes of chiffon, velvet and machine embroideries for the unassuming masses.

In contrast, certain smaller stores specialising in prêt can be regarded as much more fashion-savvy: Ego with its quintessential quirks — elephant prints, funky colour blocks and block-print effects; Daaman with its understated glamour for the working woman on the go. Generation, with its bigger stores, also delivers more than mere generic fashion; amongst the basic kurta-shalwar suits are strewed flirty short shirts, experimental lowers and prints devised especially to make statements and synonymous with the brand’s boho aesthetics.

“We enjoy retailing creative clothes,” professes Adil Moosajee, owner of Ego. “It’s now become our identity although perhaps it also drives us into a niche. Should we move towards more conventional lines and dabble seriously with unstitched fabric, we would perhaps think about bigger stores and mass-friendly designs. But that would make us lose our basic ethos and I am not willing to do that.”

Other high-street contenders, of course, don’t want to cater to just a select clientele and remain eager proponents of large stores. But could design also improve, proportionately to the rapidly mushrooming growth of these mega outlets? Affordable ready-to-wear is now accessible thanks to the high-street boom but stylish designs are still unfortunately rare. Flashy stores may offer experiences but distinctive design can make the trip worth it.

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 24th, 2017