[Event] Collaboration in retail : reinventing the wheel
Published on 22 May 2017
Altavia Group–specialists in Marketing and Publishing services–is gearing up to open an innovative retail space in Lille, France, which is designed as a collaborative hub for retailers. The main idea of this project is to unite different actors in retail, from major retailers to startups, and everyone in between. Altavia aims to create a real community where all members benefit from each other. As well as the availability of different sizes of retail space, there will also be co-working and meeting areas, and space for collaborative events and courses.
Wetail, where collaboration and innovation collide
“Wetail,” as the space has been named, is the first edition of Altavia’s project, and they aim to open additional areas in Milan, Montreal and Shanghai in 2018. Eliott Tischker, Head of Investments and Acceleration at Altavia, explains that their main mission is to create a real brick and mortar communication and collaboration space for retailers–a space completely dedicated to innovation in retail. With 110 available work areas, Wetail is divided into different retail “formulas”. The formulas include concepts such as “Pop Up Shops”, where space is rented per hour, day, week or month; specific “Corners” in the open-space area, which can be rented by the month; and, finally, “Flagships”, which are private offices that are also rented on a monthly basis.
More than just a co-working environment
The idea isn’t just to create a co-working environment, but to launch a real culture of collaboration and idea sharing among retailers. With its shared meeting areas and programs (and even an experimentation zone), the plan is to watch a retail community grow organically–to see a community in which large distributors will work side by side with mom-and-pop stores and freelance graphic designers, for example. Ideas from all aspects of the retail world will be pooled together to create innovative projects. The future of retail will be reinvented by those who have a hand in it every day.
