Belk Carolina Place Mall

In 1888, William Henry Belk exposed a little store in vermont to offer well-priced clothing and home items to neighborhood farmers. These days, Belk is a venerable style store with 300 shops in 16 Southern states. But to remain competitive, Belk needs to woo style-savvy Millennials. One way it’s doing this is through Belle & Ty, a pop-up shop that exposed in November, 2013.

Fresh and contemporary, Belle & Ty functions contemporary style alongside a real time Instagram wall, style lounge, private stylists, and once a week trunk area programs. The goal: produce a trendy, personal, affordable, and distinctly south shopping knowledge. Open up until January 2014 at Carolina Put Mall in Pineville, NC, the shop normally a learning lab for Belk; a place to prototype new offerings for a new generation.

IDEO helped us glean ideas from Millennials and create an attractive and engaging shopping experience.

The Process
Numerous younger consumers described Belk as “their grandmother’s store.” To higher interact with these lapsed buyers, Belk held innovation contests at five significant south universities. The ask: conduct analysis and develop suggestions to make Belk a top shopping choice. The winning concept had been a pop-up shop. Belk’s development group requested IDEO to complete further analysis with 20-somethings and develop the look, feel, merchandising strategy, and service experience of an innovative new, offshoot brand. In five weeks—followed by a one-month build-out by minimal Architects—Belle & Ty came to be.