New Year's showcases of Moscow: debriefing

On the eve of the New Year, we walked through the streets of Moscow and photographed the festive showcases of the largest shoe chains in the city, which operate in the mid-price segment. This is not to say that we hoped to find similarities with the windows of Milan, Paris or Berlin, but still more could be expected from window-dressers decorating stores in the capital of the largest country in the world. Experts of the merchandising.ru portal reinforced our sensation with their comments, having arranged a small debriefing for the windows of six stores - Ecco, Francesco Donni, ITAITA, Mascotte, Tervolina and Econika.

Maria Grigorieva is the editor-in-chief of the merchandising.ru portal.

Merchandising.ru is a Russian online resource dedicated to visual merchandising. It regularly publishes articles and news about visual merchandising and offers the opportunity to find an agency or expert to professionally develop visual merchandising for a store.

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Storefronts of Russian stores have always been difficult to compare with Western models, since in the art of window-dressing we are several decades behind. The exception is premium boutiques, concepts for which are developed by leading visualists. In the middle price segment, the situation is much worse, and most often we are dealing with decoration in the Soviet style: everything is more than modest, but graceful - always or something is missing, or, conversely, there are too many elements. However, among the photographs taken by Shoes Report reporters, there are more or less worthy examples of shop windows, and we even managed to make a small hit parade.

Francesco Donni: The window display is very simple, and one might even say there's no display at all. It seems like this store only needs a window display to showcase its merchandise, as the products on display are the only thing that makes up the entire space. Even the fake gifts don't contribute to the holiday spirit or the urge to buy, as they're completely invisible and placed at the bottom of the display, as if for show.

Mascotte's display window is the exact opposite of Francesco Donni's, though it's typical for mid-price store window displays. The display window is devoid of merchandise. This is wrong, as fashion stores should display what they sell—at least the top sellers. Displaying merchandise in the window will increase store traffic and may even encourage purchases of not only the styles on display but also the shoes displayed next to them. Despite this display's aggressive focus on the discount, it looks very boring without shoes.

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Ekonika: its display case is a case of too much. There are carnival elements, gift boxes, a huge poster, and a dense mesh of garlands. Behind all the clutter, it's impossible to see the shoes themselves. Such a display would likely be off-putting to a shopper with sophisticated tastes and aspirations for the elite, but given that shoe retailers like Ekonika cater to the masses, the overabundance of accessories can be overlooked. The display case draws attention (though, of course, how exactly is another matter), and in this case, that's what matters most.

Window dressing Tervolina unpretentious, but there is a general concept, manifested in the elements of white thick cardboard. True, following this concept would not hurt to add more graphics and sharpness of lines to the shape of numbers and snowflakes. Also, the watch design for such a small display case seems too cumbersome. But the combination of shoes and accessories is well chosen, which practically guarantees an increase in the number of complex purchases.

Shop window Here you can be awarded the second place in terms of functional properties, since it definitely fulfills its main task - it demonstrates the product noticeably. It is good that women's and men's shoes, as well as their complementary bags, are designed in the same style. But the showcase has significant drawbacks. For example, the objection is a lurid poster with Santa Claus and cardboard trees of the same strange appearance. One gets the feeling that two different merchandisers worked on the showcase, who did not focus on each other's work. Without these cheap decorations, the display case would have taken on a more decent appearance to the Danish brand. It is also not clear what stylistic or functional task wooden lattices perform, reminiscent of a rustic fence. Perhaps they are designed to dilute the conciseness of the general concept, but together with stars, Christmas trees and posters, this is completely unnecessary.

The ITAITA showcase deserves to take first place in our small hit parade.

Firstly, its designers made the right decision, freeing up space as much as possible. With this technique, they managed to convey a sense of scale. Secondly, Christmas trees look natural, expensive and occupy a very good place in the depth of the window, without distracting your eyes from the shoes. It is remarkable that in the window dressing not only white and silver colors traditional for the new year are used, but also pink. It creates the necessary emphasis and a gentle romantic mood. As for the presented footwear, it, together with accessories, makes up different shades of color, which is also a significant plus.