McKinsey & Co. makes bricks and mortar innovation move

Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. will today open its first ever retail space at Mall of America. 

The aim of Modern Retail Collective is to test new technologies and analyse shopper behaviour. McKinsey has initially partnered on this with four fashion and beauty brands: Kendra Scott, Eleve Cosmetics, type:A Deodorant and ThirdLove. Tech partners include Microsoft, Square, Chatter Research, FaceCake, Farfetch and Zebra Technologies. 

“Originally we were going to host a retail tech space in an office, and then we realised it would be a lot better to get real customers in a live retail environment,” says McKinsey Senior Partner Jennifer Schmidt. 

Visitors to the mall in suburban Minneapolis will be able to try out the likes of smart mirrors and software that aims to help them pick the right bra size. Cryptocurrency will be among the payment options, with Flexa doing the honours.

McKinsey plans to keep the store running for 12 to 18 months. Featured brands will rotate, with a second wave scheduled for early next year. Mall of America is not charging the company rent for the space. Revenues generated from the store will go directly to the retailers, which will pay a fee to offset some of McKinsey’s costs.

Sign up for our free retail technology newsletter here.