Italy’s Coop Alleanza 3.0 has rolled out its new hypermarket concept, opening three Extracoop stores – in Bologna, Modena and Ravenna – on 2 December.
The new stores have an average size of 11,000 square metres, representing a new generation of hypermarket.
Extracoop aims to provide an innovative shopping experience, with food, non-food and specialist retail areas, including a beauty salon, a flower shop, an optician’s and a jeweller’s.
The new concept, including design, layout, graphics and visual merchandising, was developed by Interstore in close collaboration with Coop.
Schweitzer Project implemented the design at all three locations, while the markets remained open to shoppers. The project took only eight months to complete, from the first briefing to the store openings.
Store Design
The Extracoop stores combine modern design with a high degree of flexibility, which aims to put more focus on the merchandise.
The fresh-food area, in the middle, is the heart of these markets. It is surrounded by the non-food departments, each of which is designed to look like its own store, with its own character.
This is meant to make shoppers feel as if they are in a small specialist shop, and not in a hypermarket, with thousands of square metres.
Graphic elements are used to guide shoppers through the market, such as white fluorescent letters, light boxes with pictures, and digital screens. The aim of these design innovations is to communicate with shoppers on a personal level.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Sponsored content. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
