If you love West Elm, leave it for a workshop
NEW YORK – Home furnishings store chain West Elm has come up with a novel way to connect with customers: Sell them experiences that send them to other local businesses.
West Elm is launching workshops in five cities that will send participants on visits to local artists and entrepreneurs who will teach them skills ranging from art welding to coloring fabric with indigo dye.
West Elm says the project, which starts April 2, is in keeping with its mission of being a good neighbor to smaller, communitybased businesses. West Elm is based in New York’s Brooklyn borough, where it started with a single store in 2002. It now has more than 100 stores in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K.
Its 5-year-old West Elm Local initiative has brought artists and craftspeople into more than 100 of its stores, where they get a chance to sell goods and connect with customers.
But the new project will be the first time West Elm steers shoppers directly to other businesses or to activities outside its stores. It’s a novel way for the retailer to engage with customers and grassroots artists.
“As a retailer, we’re transforming how we’re interacting with our customers, interacting with them outside the four walls of our store,” says Mo Mullen, director of West Elm Local.
Starting Tuesday, shoppers can start purchasing the experiences from West Elm’s website.
Customers will be able to sign up for an art welding class at a studio in Austin that also will feature live music and a happy hour around a campfire. Shoppers can choose to learn how to create indigo dyed patterns at a studio in Brooklyn. Other experiences include sketching with an artist in a park in Charleston, S.C., woodworking at a furniture design studio in Detroit and creating hand-tufted textiles in a class in Savannah, Ga. The activities will cost between $130 and $250, last 90 minutes to 4 hours and be offered through May. 27. West Elm expects to eventually expand the offering to other cities.
At a time when an increasing number of shoppers are buying products from Amazon and other online sellers, retailers are having to get creative to make visiting an actual store worth a customer’s while. Stores are demonstrating products, throwing parties and using technologies such as augmented reality to lure shoppers. But beyond entertainment, Millennial shoppers, in particular, also want to spend their money with businesses they feel have a social consciousness or an authentic attachment to their communities, experts say.
Shira Entis, creative director for Brooklyn-based bag company Fleabags, will teach the history of indigo to those who participate in her workshop as well as how to use blue dye to color fabric.
“It will be really impactful for us in terms of exposure to a new customer base,” she says,