Andrew O'Hara
London Retailer John Lewis has opened a massive 230,000 square foot retail location with a dedicated Apple HomeKit display in the Westfield London shopping center.
HouseBeautiful was able to visit before the store opened to the public to provide a hands-on experience and photos.
Apple has partnered with John Lewis on the display, where visitors can enter, look around a setup room, and use Siri to try out different commands.
A keen eye will spot a HomeKit thermostat, Hue lights, Logitech Circle 2, and a HomePod among the accessories included in the display.
Partnering with Apple made sense to John Lewis, as a large portion of their audience use Apple devices. When looking at mobile traffic, 77 percent of their shoppers were coming from an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad.
"We know Amazon are going after this space, we know Google are going after it in a big way," says Sin Grieve from John Lewis. "This is our chance to bring that to life in an iOS setting."
This is just the latest HomeKit experience for Apple, who has started to include interactive displays in some of the larger Apple Stores.
The new store has a large emphasis on experiences, with partnerships and displays covering many different areas including a bar, a "sleep room", a gift area, and more.
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6 Comments
Good move. JL shifts a lot of Apple kit (and they thrown in an extra year on the warranty).
And yet they see no need to invest in contactless infrastructure. Only third parties operating inside their stores offer such terminals. So, thy show off HomeKit but don’t offer Apple Pay - colour me confused.
There’s a fan near the TV, anyone know what brand/model that is? Presumably HomeKit? UPDATE Never mind. It’s this one and not HomeKit. They’re likely just using a HomeKit plug such as the Elgato Eve plug to power it on, Very nice fan though! https://m.johnlewis.com/stadler-form-q-fan/p3261988