ores in Australia and more internationally in 2015. “We have a few in the works. I am currently in South Africa working with our team to see where the opportunities lie here. “South Africa is a growing market for us, we have over 20 stores here and have had great success in connecting our customers and delivering them a product and experience that is really fitting with the growing population and wealth over here,” Slattery said. The new concept stores are designed as experience-based destinations that will allow customers to engage with products and for the brand to experiment and trial new ranges. The concept takes the store footprint from 90sqm to 180sqm to 200sqm, allowing more space for demonstrations and workshops, and an unwind area, complete with a couch where customers can grab cushions and practice styling before they buy. The southern hemisphere, including Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are Typo’s best markets. “We’ve introduced the Typo Home range in NZ in the last quarter and are having some success there, which starts to lead us to needing some more space. NZ is definitely a region that we’ll be looking at upsizing.” Slattery told Inside Retail PREMIUM, the response from customers has been instantaneous. “We planned and decided to deliver a large format store that could really change the customer experience and increase dwell time rather than making the Typo experience a fast rapid shop to really explore the category extensions of our brand.” Large format stores are divided into three zones – Typo essentials, which includes everything you would find in a traditional 90sqm Typo store, including gifts, stationery, travel, and accessories; Typo Homewares, including wall art, bed linen, cushions, diningware, and decor; and Made by Typo and party, including party supplies, DIY, and crafts. Typo has large format stores operational in Indooroopilly and Carindale in Queensland; Highpoint, Victoria; and Del Amo in Los Angeles, in the US; as well as 140 stores smaller stores in nine countries. “For our regular customers to see us invest and upsize, and deliver them a new experience is really paying off and the feedback we’re getting from our customers is that they’re loving it,” Slattery said. Typo will continue to open both small and large format stores, and is in the process of developing ways to make the small stores more interactive. “In our smaller stores we don’t have the floorspace to be able to deliver all of those elements. We’re definitely looking at how we can connect our customers in our smaller footprints to our digital network through our blog and social media and use those areas to really show our customer how to customise and use our products in different ways.” This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2034. To subscribe, click here.