It is always possible that L’Occitane is overdoing it. This should be treated as a test and not as a headline. I bet the retailer will re-arrange its mélange of experiences after a few months and either replace or completely remove some of its components. It also appears that this conglomeration of experiences is costly and would not be replicable across all L’Occitane stores. Tag this one for follow-up in six to nine months.

The cosmetics industry and its retailer ecosystem have been the standard bearers in creating a great customer experience. Sephora, Ulta and Blue Mercury are showing the entire retail industry how it should be done. L’Occitane has to follow suit to compete. I love this concept and love what they are trying to do. Now if only Millennials and Generation Z could afford this stuff!

I can’t wait to see this store. This is retailing of the future.

Bring the people in. Make them feel good about you. Encourage them to sample your products. Get their email address. Send them home with samples. Encourage them to buy online and become a loyal customer.

If they don’t SELL one item in the store, it doesn’t matter!

As much attention as small formats have received, flagship stores aren’t going away and in fact are more important to some retailers’ strategies than ever before. They check a few boxes that go beyond literal sales generated from a particular location. Flagships are the ultimate expression of a brand’s point of view and possibilities, they encourage brand engagement through experiential retail, they serve as innovation laboratories, and also drive brand awareness that can translate into digital sales as shoppers seek to continue the relationship. This is where L’Occitane may be going too far too fast. I love L’Occitane products but two holiday seasons in a row, I’ve had horrible experiences on the L’Occitane website. Availability, navigability, and frustratingly clunky ordering processes had me wailing, and ultimately, bailing. One of my top retail trajectories is “let your flagship fly,” but the grooviest flagship in the world must be backed up by seamless digital execution — it must be baked into the plan for retailers to realize all the benefits.

Flagship stores exist to make a statement and that’s good for attracting consumers in droves — until the novelty wears off. The issue here is whether L’Occitane can keep getting incrementally better quarter-to-quarter. There are only so many VR balloon rides the novelty set will go on after all. Is it worth it? We’ll see. As to the issue of overdoing, “experiential,” marketing I think it really depends on what you are trying to drive. If it’s media and brand awareness, bring on the in-store rain forest. If it’s sustainable sales, you might have to work on other things like service. Like everything else in retail, the devil is in the details. In the short term, this is a clear win. After all, we are all writing about it. Long term? It’s hard to build a better circus four times a year, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

L’Occitane has some great products, but it suffers from a lack of brand awareness. This kind of move should help them remedy that weakness. They have also been refurbishing other stores, though without the technology upgrade, which is helping to attract more shoppers.

Consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, love the theater of shopping just as their parents and grandparents did. These consumers grew up with technology and digital experiences and infusing immersive digital experiences into stores is a great way to inspire these consumers to visit your stores.

L’Occitane is also elevating the experiences with high class interactive themes that will elevate consumers’ perception of the brand. Once customers are identified, L’Occitane is personalizing the experience based on customer context — another great retail practice. Understanding what products I buy, who I may buy for and price points I prefer plays well with both Millennials and Gen Z. L’Occitane needs to roll with this concept.

The fact that L’Occitane uses the words “more disruptive” in their press release is enough for me to predict this will end up a failure (probably with a few learnings along the way).

Companies don’t “set out to disrupt” unless their message is purely for the stock market. They find important things that will create excellent business and pursue them. Those things sometimes disrupt markets.

Here’s my recent blog post criticizing Christensen for suggests it’s “disruption or nothing!” in his writing. “Disruption Fear Distracts from Innovation: The Innovator’s Dilemma Revisited”

How many Millennials live in the area? How many Millennials visit the area? Since they are now the largest population group, one or even two experiential stores in one market is not going to have much impact. However, there is also social media, so those who do visit can share with all their friends. This helps recognition and interest helping to make the store a must see when in the area. How did that work for the M & M store in Las Vegas? If the main attraction is experience, that will not translate well across social media. One or two experiential stores is not sufficient.