invidis went out an about on the search for Barcelona’s most remarkable stores to visit during ISE 2024. Most stores are in walking distance from Placa de Catalunya. The selection offers something for everyone, being it digital signage vendors, end-customers, architects or digital agencies.
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invidis Coolest Stores of Barcelona is also available on Google Maps. Just bookmark our special Google Maps List.
Lynk & Co: A Club – Not a Car Showroom
Inner-city car showrooms follow different laws than large car dealerships in commercial areas in the periphery: the city focus is on modern brand experiences. The EV subscription provider Lynk & Co is at the forefront of the movement with unique city clubs – with exciting retail design but limit use of digital signage.
In Fall 2022 the Swedish-Chinese electric car mobility provider opened its largest club to date on Passeig de Gràcia – the main shopping street in Barcelona. Lynk & Co operates ten clubs worldwide, including in Berlin and Munich. The showroom concept initially sounds similar to that of its competitors: “At Lynk & Co, we don’t do car dealerships – we go to clubs.” But the club concept goes one step further than other inner-city showrooms. The only Lynk & Co car to date is well hidden between hip architecture and furniture, lots of greenery and a bar. The hip mobility provider calls the concept “Colourful. Creative. And a little weird.” | Digital Signage Integrator: unknown
invidis background article about Lynk & Co stores – read the full report here
Golden Goose: Digital Signage on an Easel
Barcelona | Italian luxury fashion brand Golden Goose is known for its vintage-look sneakers. The glamorous sneakers are offered in selected own-retail stores, including in Barcelona on Passeige de Gracia. Golden Goose uses signage on easels in the shop window.
Window displays need to be flexible – collections and campaigns change quickly. There are a lot of benefits of flexible digital signage installations vs. fixed in fashion shop windows, both in fast fashion and in luxury fashion.
Golden Goose makes a virtue out of necessity and installed digital signage displays on simple mobile film production tripods. The unfinished look of the installation fits well with Golden Gooses vintage theme and fashion in general. We discovered this digital signage setup in different Golden Goose stores around the world at different seasons. Digital signage can be so flexible
Lefties | Fast fashion super digitalized
Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti) has always been at the forefront of digitalization of physical retail. But digital enabled shopping experiences are not limited to Inditex’s premium brands but are also introduced to the Inditex outlet brand Lefties. One of the most impressive digital signage concepts currently being rolled out. invidis was on site at Diagonal de Mare Shopping Center and experienced a spectacular store, fitting room and check-out experience.
The Inditex outlet concept Lefties is not one of the Spanish fashion group’s premium retail formats. It is all the more surprising that a discount line was chosen for the next gen of digital instore technology at the world’s largest fashion retailer. The latest digital signage touchpoint concepts meet branch automation and offline/online connectivity. The results are impressive. | Digital Signage Integrator: Trison
invidis inspected various Lefties stores – read the full report here
Lefties | Digital meets Historic
Inditex’s Lefties flagship in Barcelona – opened in late 2022 – remains best practice of digital instore and digital signage. Definitely a must-see for ISE 2024 participants. In summer of 2023 Inditex opened a another Lefties store in the city center inside a historic building. Not as fancy at the large flagship but worthwhile a visit, too.
Inditex opened a new lefties at Portal de l’Àngel in the pedestrian zone of Barcelona just five minutes’ walk from Placa Catalunya. The new store is less digital but features many of the cool new touchpoint concepts of the larger store at Diagonal de Mar Shopping Center.
Polestar | Minimalistic with a Touch of Digital
Polestar Space in Barcelona (Photo: invidis)
After Tesla, the Swedish-Chinese electric car brand Polestar is one of the most successful newcomers: It has firmly established itself in the European automotive market. While Tesla feels comfortable in the role of the disruptor, Polestar builds on Scandinavian minimalistic design, which is reflected in the latest showrooms.
Polestar showrooms are design temples, cool colors, and clear shapes with a touch of understatement. Everything has its place and looks tidy. Only individual car components such as suspension struts or brakes are presented like historic statues in a museum. This can also be experienced in the Polestar Space on the Passeig de Gracia in the heart of Barcelona.
Adidas: Artful flagship in Barcelona
In fall 2022 the sports and fashion brand opened its largest store in Spain just across Passeig de Gràcia from the existing store. Situated in a historic building, the new store is a homage to Barcelona by integrating local elements into its global retail design.
Barcelona is due it’s FC Barcelona sponsorship Nike town. A challenge for competing brands to intertwine the brand with the city and culture of the city. Adidas solved the challenge by moving its 2.200 m² flagship store to a historic corner building at the heart of the city. The German sports brand integrated large-scale street art works by local artists depicting famous Gaudi style art. Local art is combined with a vertical natural garden.
Adidas integrated most of their global digital signage touchpoint concepts across the two floors. This includes smart mirrors in fitting rooms for selfie moments with Barcelona backgrounds.
Improved Experience: Delivery Screens at McDonalds
coming to the restaurant themselves anymore, logistics processes in and around restaurants need to be adjusted. Often dozens of delivery service drivers waiting with their bikes in front of and in the restaurant for pickup taking away precious space. McDonald’s has reacted and is now informing delivery service drivers with screens in the shop window.
So far, QSR chains have used four different digital signage concepts in their restaurants: order kiosk, menu boards, pick-up screens and drive-thru. A fifth digital signage touchpoint concept could now follow: the delivery screen. In city restaurants in particular, drivers from delivery service partners are increasingly queuing up with their colorful jackets and backpacks to wait for the order to be completed.
For guests in the restaurant, this has a negative impact on the experience of visiting the restaurant. Drivers block the waiting areas and disrupt the finely balanced flow in the restaurant from the order kiosk to the pickup. New restaurants will have separate entrances/pickup windows for delivery services. But in existing restaurants McDonald’s is testing dedicated waiting areas in front of the restaurant. Separate delivery screens are used to inform delivery service drivers about the status of the order.
The number of displays in McDonald’s restaurants is constantly increasing. Including the back-of-house (kitchen, etc.), there are a few dozen screens per branch. From small to large format, from touch to high brightness. | Digital Signage Integrator: Visual Art
IoT Store | The world’s most unique sneaker store
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The coolest store in Barcelona is not listed on the map – as the store is a dark store. Hidden in a small street of Vila de Gracia (Fontana subway station) lies the most unique sneaker store in the world. Designed and built by Carlos Santin, founder of Admira Digital Signage and a digital retail age Gaudi. Brands and retailers looking for the most innovative, most out of the box concepts should meet with Carlos. Inspiration and confusion guaranteed.
The Sneaker-collector opened the door to his latest digital concept – exclusively for invidis: The IoT-Store is a dark store stocked with some of the world’s most sought-after original sneakers. Fully driven by data and only accessible online. | Digital Signage Integrator: Admira
Pangea | Travel Agency inside a former cinema
A former cinema turned travel themed experience space. A national tour operator created an innovative travel agency with container, auditorium, and restaurant. Customers can experience food and sights of destination before take-off.
Replay | Where Italian Fashion meets Catalan architecture
invidis’ list of coolest stores in Barcelona also includes almost non-digital stores, like the Replay flagship on Passeig de Gràcia. The fashion store is one Barcelona’s most beautiful designed stores in a historic building. Great lighting design and smart use of the historical space.
Samsung Shop-in-Shop at Corte Ingles | Samsung LED wrapped, as fan and on the wall
The Corte Ingles department store in the pedestrian area features a Samsung Shop-in-Shop on the ground floor with very nice LED pillar wraps, LED 3D-fans and the latest in Samsung PoS design. | Digital Signage Integrator: Econocom Spain.
Cottet | Optician with style
The instore design of the flagship store of French eyewear retailer Cottet merges historic architecture with latest digital signage. LED welcome boards attract passer-bys while round digital screens pick-up the typical eyewear design. | Digital Signage Integrator: Instronic
Kave Home | Online retailer goes offline
Started as a Spanish B2B furniture retailer operating with eCommerce platforms in 60 countries. As many eCommerce only retailer also Kave decided to add physical stores to their portfolio. Consumers like to see furniture before they buy – a place to better understand why online and offline can coexist quite well. The Kave Home, experience concept (LED, Displays, Content, Music and Scent) was developed and installed by Barcelona-based TMM-Group/Waapiti. The Kave Home Barcelona concept is exported around the world – as the retailer is opening new stores every month around the world (even in Australia)
Casa Seat | Downtown Automative Brand Experience
The Spanish auto manufacturer opened a brand experience center in downtown Barcelona, in the city where Seat was born 70 years ago. The space is designed as an urban mobility hub offering cars, restaurants, public workspaces and event locations. | Instore Music by TMM-Group
Benetton | Digital Signage is back at Benetton
Benetton is in the process of reinventing itself. The fashion brand was on the digital signage trailblazer ten years ago, but later scaled digital back to almost digital detox concept. Now Benetton has rediscovered digital signage, as visible in two stores in Barcelona (Passeig de Gràcia 69 and Diagonal 605). The stores feature various large format LED videowalls (entrance gate and pillar wraps) in combination with instore music and scent. The stores were digitally transformed by Waapiti
FC Barcelona Museum & Store | The world’s famous Camp Nou stadium
A visit to the Camp Nou – the famous stadium of FC Barcelona – is a must not only for football fans. The store and museum feature large LED and many interactive projection touchpoints. Even the museum technology is dated, the digital signage concept still works to engage and impress. | Scent by TMM/Waapiti
Casa Batllo | Gaudi meets Refik Anadol
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No visit to the Catalan capital is complete without Gaudi. For digital signage fans a visit to the newly renovated Casa Batllo is a must. In the basement of the Gaudi building, a 10D Experience has been in operation since April 2021, a room six-sided equipped with 243m² of finest LED and brought to life by AI video artist Refik Anadol. | LED provided by Alfalite
Nike | Worldclass flagship
The latest incarnation of Nike’s flagship concept can be visited on Passeig de Gràcia. The LED entrance frame is the eyecatcher especially in the evening. The sporting goods manufacturer integrated dozens of digital signage touchpoints in the store, from Nike App dashboards next to the cashier, to LED behind the retail systems and displays inside the mannequin podiums. A must visit store during ISE.
Zara Placa de Catalunya | Fashion meets historical Post Office
Zara operates two flagship stores just a few hundred meters to each other. The Placa de Catalunya store is located in a former post office. The antique building offers a very unique space for Zara to present the latest fashion. The three floor high rotunda offer spectacular curved LED-walls | Digital Signage integrator by Trison
Zara Passeig de Gràcia | Fashion Experience in LED-Style
Zara’s most recent retail concept can be experienced at Passeig de Gracia – right across H&M and Uniqlo. Curved LED as visual merchandising backdrops, self-checkout zones and a huge LED behind the cashier desks. The store was one of the largest Zara retail spaces when it opened, today the world’s largest Zara store is located in Madrid. Worthwhile a visit is also the special Zara store next store | Digital Signage integrator by Trison
Desigual | Barcelona is Awesome
Barcelona’s local fashion brand Desigual – HQ is located right on the beach at the harbor – operates a flagship store on Placa de Catalunya. Plenty of LED in the entrance area plus the famous neon sign “BCN is fxxxg awesome”. Desigual was long famous for hanging thousands of empty glass bottles from the ceiling. The latest design comes without bottles, but again with unique design elements.
Mango | Transparent in LED
Transparent LED is becoming more popular in digital signage projects. One of the trail blazer for transparent has been Spanish fashion brand Mango. Their women flagship right on the famous Ramblas features transparent LED across the store.
Massimo Dutti | Premium fast fashion in style
Similar to Replay, an old historical villa is home to Massimo Dutti’s flagship store. The Inditex brand uses digital signage only for small service oriented touchpoints as magic mirror or small touch screens in fitting rooms. In general Massimo Dutti prefers a digital detox retail design.
CaixaBank All in one | Much more than just transactions
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Caixa Bank reinvent their bank branch concept which was previously divided in standard retail branches, VIP branches and business stores. The All in One concept is a typical flagship concept and has been rolled out in Valencia, Barcelona and most recently in Madrid. The branch is much more than a transactional space for banking services, it’s a place to meet, work, socialize and bank. The lobby is filled with round pillar LED, ambient LED at ATMs and a LED bar. In addition the bank offers an auditorium open for internal and client use. Digital Signage Integrator: Instronic Barcelona
H&M | Less is more – digital where it matters
Similar to the Zara store at PdC – H&M is located in a historical building. The entrance hall to the former insurance building is a must-see, also how digital signage was installed in such a sensitive space. Walk up the staircase to the top floor – the store in general is quite old. Except a mirror-signage installation in the ground floor is worthwhile a stop.
Sephora | Influencer’s paradise
The Sephora flagship store is still today – even more than five years after opening – a must see for digital signage fans. The biggest challenge for the LVMH-brand and the architects was to create enough visibility for a basement store. Sephora created a LED-walkway, a slide and many influencer selfie spots outside and inside the store. The store has been upgraded a few times including social wall and lift&learn experiences. Some of the early stage LED on the walls has been replaced by analogue signage. Retail design trends change throughout the years and less digital is sometimes more. Note – please enter der store from inside the Triangle shopping center. | Digital Signage Integrator: Instronic Barcelona
Orange | Less hardware – more service
The telecommunication provider opened next door to Footlocker a new flagship store with in a lounge design. Less merchandise but more service points and spaces for customers and visitors to relax. Telco providers are increasingly struggling to present service-based solutions in stationary retail. Orange does a good job – take a look at the Movistar flagship a few houses down towards Corte Ingles and compare. You will spot the different concepts.
Footlocker | Sneaker Culture with DJ beats
Sneakers are much more than just shoes. US retailer Footlocker celebrates sneaker culture in their latest store format with a large LED experience zone at the entrance and smaller digital touchpoints spread around the store.
Spain’s digital signage elite goes global
“Spain’s digital signage providers are hardly relevant outside their home market.” – at least that is the prevailing opinion in northern Europe. The reality is quite different, as Latin America has become a huge second home market for Spain’s digital signage elite. invidis provides an overview of the who-is-who of the Spanish digital signage market.
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With ISE moving to Barcelona – the Spanish digital signage and ProAV market is moving into the industry spotlight. Although the Iberian Peninsula with Spain and Portugal is so far quite small with only 6% EMEA market share compared to the DACH region (19%), the development is much more dynamic. Quite a number of innovative Iberian DS providers are also active far beyond the home market.
The best known is certainly Trison – one of top four European digital signage integrators. The Spaniards, based in Galicia (La Coruna), have risen to become a global provider with their main customer Inditex (Zara). In addition to Fast Fashion, the company’s portfolio also includes Porsche, Starbucks, et al. Customers to the portfolio. Unlike its European competitors – M-Cube, Stratacache, ZetaDisplay – Trison does not use its own CMS platform, but Grassfish, Navori and Deneva.
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Deneva (Icon Multimedia) is one of the leading Spanish software providers, along with Waapiti, N-Sign and Admira. Although the CMS platforms are little known in many parts of Europe, the vendors have a large international business. Like so many Spanish companies, Iberian digital signage vendors have a strong presence in Latin America.
In addition to Trison, Econocom Spain in particular is in a leading market position. The French IT financial services provider has invested heavily in Spain, acquiring integrators (Altabox), distributors and mobile developers. Many of the spectacular digital signage projects in Barcelona, Madrid but also in the Middle East come from Barcelona-based Instronic. Admira (integrator with own software) is known with the spectacular IoT Sneaker Store in Barcelona. TMM Group from Barcelona (developer of Waapiti software) installs and operates digital signage networks on the Iberian Peninsula with many thousands of touchpoints.
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Unknown to most – but an important supplier in Spain – is the LED provider Alfalite from Andalusia. Its best-known project is the Gaudi-inspired 4D LED room at Casa Batllo in Barcelona.
ISE offers the chance – to get to know the market participants unknown to many digital signage providers. Because for all of them not only the Iberian Peninsula is the home market but the Spanish speaking world including Latin America.
DSS ISE 2024 – invidis will discuss the potential of the Spanish and Latin American digital signage market with leading Spanish digital signage providers at DSS on January 31st. More information and tickets Conference Website