
Tights specialist Heist has opened its first physical store in Seven Dials at 46 Monmouth Street, taking the digital brand offline and onto the high street. Exceptional customer service has been crucial to Heist’s success from the start. Now it is Heist’s customer service team that has been interacting with Heist customers online for more than three years, who will train the brand’s new in-store assistants.
'Until now, Heist has only ever existed online. When we made the decision to open a bricks and mortar store we had to ask ourselves, what does Heist look like in person? How do our brand, values and offering translate?' says Joanna Bell, head of retail at Heist and former director of UK and Scandinavia sales at Michael Kors.
True to its belief in the importance of putting the customer at the heart of everything it does, Heist will be offering customers at its new store – named the DemoStudio – the same ‘try-before-you-buy’ promise on its tights that it gives online customers; a world-first for the global hosiery industry. Heist will also donate unwanted tights from the try-before-you-buy offering to long-standing charity partner Smart Works, which provides interview clothing and coaching to long-term unemployed women looking to enter the workplace. The Heist DemoStudio will also house a donation point for interview-appropriate women’s clothing – customers can follow the brand’s Instagram account for tips on what to donate.
'The high street is not dying. Brands that fail to evolve are,' says Bell. 'The high street presents huge opportunity for innovation. Farfetch’s Store of the Future aims to capture data and boost interactions with customers, which is at the heart of Heist’s approach both online and now offline. We see an exciting future on the high street for brands to grow stronger by bringing the best of both online and offline worlds together to improve customer experience.'