Canada Goose 'Cold Rooms' Give Shoppers Chilly Reception
Canada Goose doesn't want you to take its word that its down coats, which sell for $800 to $1,600, are warm in the most brutal freezing conditions.
The luxury "extreme" outerwear retailer is letting shoppers test out its toasty garments in a handful of so-called "Cold Rooms" located in its stores, including Millburn, New Jersey, and Boston. At those brick-and-mortar shops, Canada Goose will let you enter a small room, the size of a walk-in closet, where the temperature drops down to minus 25 degrees Celsius. That translates to minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit for Americans, and should give a customer a pretty good idea of how warm the coats keep them in even the most challenging weather.
These rooms embody the essence of "experiential retail," one of the prevailing trends in the brick-and-mortar shopping industry. A consumer can order a down coat online, but he or she can't test it out to learn if it really shields them from the cold before they buy on a website.
By visiting one of the cold rooms, a shopper can not only stand in that freezing environment in a Canada Goose jacket but with the push of a button turn on a wind option. That way, they can discover how it feels to test drive a parka in a brisk breeze, simulating wind chill.
In addition to its two U.S. locations, Canada Goose has its freezing cold rooms in stores in Tokyo, Montreal, Beijing and Hong Kong.
At The Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, the Cold Room has a backdrop wall that depicts a snowy glacial landscape, as if in the Arctic. It features ice walls, thick as an ice sculpture. There is a small window that faces out into the store. Large lettering invites patrons to "Experience the Cold Room."
Neil Stern, a senior partner at McMillanDoolittle, a Chicago retail consulting firm, said stores are really forced to invest in such extras in order to survive in the long term.
"Experiential elements are critical for retailers if they want to retain relevance in brick and mortar," he said in an email. "If the product is easily obtainable online, retailers need to add value -- service, experiential elements, convenience -- to have a reason to be. In the case of Canada Goose, cold rooms are 'cool' -- my pun -- but they also demonstrate a tangible benefit of the product."
Canada Goose spokeswoman Courtney LaRue declined to say how much it costs to install a Cold Room, or to discuss whether the company tracks the impact these rooms are having on sales in the shops where they are located.
Retailers today struggle with the question of whether it really pays to add experiential elements to a store, whether the installations are financially justified, but companies can't afford not to play in that space, according to Stern.
"It is very difficult to calculate a return on investment on experience in the same way you would measure the addition of a new program or service that has a direct revenue and cost component," he wrote. "For Canada Goose, it needs to be measured in the overall store productivity and, to some degree, in the performance of the brand itself. These (Cold Room) stores can also have impact on sales in the broader wholesale channels."
There is risk involved, according to Stern.
"It is a challenge to essentially take a leap of faith in understanding that experience is a necessary component in what the next generation of retail needs to look like," he wrote.
