David Jones bets on Bourke St makeover to attract shoppers after Sydney store overhaul, as online competition heats up

The retailer, which is up for sale by its South African owner Woolworths, is giving its flagship stores a makeover to give shoppers a ‘premium, aspirational’ experience.

David Jones boss Scott Fyfe with fashion models Lillian Liberg and Hala Madol at the new-look Bourke St store in Melbourne. Picture: David Caird

Consider this music to customers’ ears.

At the unveiling of stage one of David Jones’ reimagined Bourke Street store, chief executive Scott Fyfe pre-empted the first question from guests: “Is the piano here to stay? The answer to that is yes.”

With experience central to engaging customers in an increasingly digital world, Mr Fyfe said the creation of world-class flagship stores was part of the company’s ongoing plan to make David Jones “the iconic Australian business it should be”.

Following a $200m investment in its Elizabeth Street store in Sydney – a total of $400m including partner investments – this is a more modest spend at just $20m on behalf of the retailer (and $50m in total).

The total footprint will be 25,000sq m; Elizabeth St is 41,000sq m.

Mr Fyfe told The Australian that there were similarities between the Sydney and Melbourne projects, “bringing together the company’s total offering under one roof, where previously men’s and women’s wear for one were located in two different stores.

“We’ve put together a really premium, aspirational flagship experience,” he said.

“There’s some really good, innovative thinking. Some lands (today) and some will be in phase two.”

Mr Fyfe said that the service proposition is paramount, with “much more staff, (and) digital capabilities for customers to curate or pre-shop online and then show us what they want to buy (once in store).”

Bourke St will open in three phases, starting this week with women’s fashion on level three.

For the first time – and a rare occurrence globally – it will put women’s footwear on the same floor as its designer fashion offering.

Also on the same floor will be the personal shopping suites, and two beauty treatment rooms.

Bridget Veals, general manager womenswear, said that lessons learnt from Elizabeth St have informed the Melbourne store.

“What we know is that the customer was really drawn to that level of (luxury) brands and now (she will have) the shopping experience of having that choice of footwear together in one place.

“It makes a unique shopping experience in the Melbourne CBD. She wants to see all brands together.”

In the refreshed design and layout, the heritage windows of the 1851 building, acquired by David Jones in 1982, have been uncovered and restored to allow natural light to flood in, and fitting rooms and point of sale are both located in the middle of the floor for easy access and visibility.

The next phase, opening in mid-July, will be menswear, over two floors, homewares and children’s wear.

The remainder of the flagship will be open in October, ahead of the Christmas shopping season.

For the first time, men will also have their own personal shopping suites, where they can relax and choose vinyl to play while trying on tailoring.

The bigger challenge for the retailer remains foot traffic in the CBD following the pandemic.

“I think without a shadow of doubt we need to get people back in to work in more normalised working patterns,” said Mr Fyfe.

“Foot traffic has improved by 10 percentage points in the past six weeks. Saturday and Sunday trade is definitely strong … we’re getting back to FY19 numbers on a weekend trade basis. We’re really optimistic.”

The overarching plan outlined in 2018 for the retailer included investing in experiential flagships, reducing store numbers, and more focus on digital – which now sits at around 20 per cent of sales post-pandemic.

The retailer currently has 44 stores operating around Australia, down four since 2019, and “we’ve got plans to reduce that further”, said Mr Fyfe.

Discussions are currently underway for other “gold” – or top-performing – stores to get the flagship treatment, including Chatswood, Chadstone and Brisbane.

As to rumours in The Australian about a potential sale of David Jones by its owners, South Africa’s Woolworths, Mr Fyfe said he could not “comment on media speculation”.

Glynis Traill-Nash travelled to Melbourne as a guest of David Jones.