How we helped Virgin Megastore remain fun and innovative

Although no longer a common fixture in the UK and US retail markets, Virgin Megastore is still a firm customer favourite across the Middle East.

In a recent blog post founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, put this sustained success down to offering a wide mix of products to suit the market. He also discussed providing a retail environment based on fun and innovation, which makes each store a destination that young people want to spend time in.

It was this focus on innovation that led to a discussion between Virgin Megastore and our team at Tensator FZE, regarding the retailer’s queuing needs.

The initial discussion revolved around the Virgin Megastore at the Mall of The Emirates and the fact that the current queuing system at the service points was not clearly defined. This was leading to customer confusion, below target transaction times and lost sales.

Our team was quick to offer a solution that would allow Virgin Megastore to offer the customer experience it is renowned for.

We provided Tensabarrier® Posts, complete with webbing featuring the Virgin logo and colours, helping to create an on-brand, clearly defined, snake-like queuing system. Sign Holders were also used so that customers can easily identify the entrance to the queue.

We also installed an Electronic Call Forward system, allowing customers to be quickly called to the next available service point. As this type of system is proven to reduce customer walk-aways by up to 96%, we were confident that this would help meet the needs of Virgin Megastore.

Our solution has been in place for over six months now and we were delighted to hear back from the team at Virgin Megastore regarding the results.

Not only does the store now have an organised and simple queuing area, overall transaction times are now 15% faster. This has helped to keep customers happy and significantly reduce the number of ‘lost baskets’, by offering an easier way for the customer to queue and to be guided.

The solution has been such a success that we are now working with Virgin Megastore on other projects at leading retail destinations such as the Dubai Mall, helping to capture that sense of retail fun and innovation that Richard Branson highlights in his blog – something that we agree is vital to the customer journey.