Project Overview
Greater Group worked with the team at Macquarie Leasing to design and develop the physical retail face of Macquarie’s new car purchasing and finance platform, Motome. Established to respond to evolving buyer preferences, these include; a greater understanding of an individual’s borrowing potential, the ability to compare car models across brands and the need to better cater for family and female customers looking to purchase.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Chris Smith, Pauline Chan, Vicki Fu
Project Brief
The team were tasked with creating a space that was welcoming and engaging, that seamlessly integrated with technology and enriched the consumers ability to explore, compare and configure product choices. The environment needed to provide physical spaces to showcase and promote feature cars, interactive digital displays, along with varying lounge and chat space for the store staff to have conversations around vehicle selection or to go through financial applications and book customers in for test drives.
Accessibility and customer flow through the space was one of the main strategies driving the store layout. The division between the retail zone and the mall area was purposely blurred to help encourage shoppers to 'pop in and explore’. Traditional shopfront glazing, typical of Shopping centre executions, was purposely left out of the design to allow for a 24/7 accessible zone, This unique after hours space lets visitors view the display cars and access the various digital information and selection tools even when the store is not staffed.
The store aesthetic is subtly layered with varying textures and patterns that both add to the homely environment while nodding to Automotive styling and materiality. This was designed to complement the buyer journey which usually starts in the home. The store environment has become an extension of this process; merging creature comforts with expert advice and direct access to the product.
Project Innovation/Need
Greater Group worked closely with the digital experience agency, Watch This Space, to develop the digital and interactive experiences in the store. This collaboration resulted in a selection of unique experiences that were crucial to information and product exploration elements of the store.
An Augmented Reality experience that allows customers to further engage with the featured vehicle physically present in the store, using a touch screen and live camera feed of the car to entice customers to explore particular aspects of that vehicle.
The implementation of the 'converge product information platform' is the first time this piece of tech was rolled out in Australia. The custom kinetic display allows customers to easily browse the product range by brands and then directly compare similar products across different brands, simplifying what can often be a challenging part of the product selection process. The consumer can also access videos and testimonials on selections and then request to book a test drive, receive a quote or enquire about financing options all through the system, they then have the option to push the collect information to their handheld device to continue the browsing process later at home.
Design Challenge
Constantly evolving, retail trends driven by unprecedented access to information and the ease of online shopping has had a huge effect on the customers path to purchase. The Automotive buying journey has changed dramatically with access to information online, while the physical showroom has stayed the same for the last 50 years.
The Motome interior environment puts the path to purchase at the heart of the design process. The result is a unique space that merges design typologies from hospitality, interactive retailing and financial services which nestles its self into the modern path to vehicle ownership. The interior reflects the comfort of someone’s home or favourite café, while the integration of powerful technology, on hand product experts and physical cars on display are there to guide the consumer to make those final crucial decisions.
Sustainability
For Motome, sustainability is not only attained by selection of materials, furniture; but also in the approach to the store design and establishing flexible and functional spaces. The ‘Self Discovery / Interactive digital’ zone and car display remains open to visitors when the rest of the store closes, ensuring the use of assets/resources is always maximised.
All of the custom joinery items installed were manufactured locally in greater group’s factory in Melbourne; and 50% of the loose furniture are designed & made in Australia.
Interior Design - Retail
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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