THE BICESTER COLLECTION LAUNCHES A MULTI-DESTINATION VIRTUAL VILLAGE

THE BICESTER COLLECTION LAUNCHES A MULTI-DESTINATION VIRTUAL VILLAGE EXPERIENCE, POWERED BY EMPERIA

Offering seamless alignment between its physical and digital offering, The Bicester Collection’s immersive virtual experience allows audiences around the world to discover four of the Collection’s Village destinations, Bicester Village, La Roca Village, La Vallée Village and Fidenza Village, from the comfort of home.

The Bicester Collection, a family of 11 distinctive luxury shopping destinations in Europe and China, is introducing a new virtual retail experience, bringing its unique Village environment to audiences worldwide, and showcasing its unique curation of the world’s leading luxury fashion and lifestyle brands enhanced by five-star hospitality and services. This innovative new offering is powered by the Emperia platform, an immersive retail start-up that imagines the future of the industry, where brands can offer seamless and personalised experiences physically and virtually.

Designed to represent each of the Villages’ exquisite physical environments, the new virtual experience brings together Bicester Village (UK), La Roca Village (Spain), La Vallée Village (France) and Fidenza Village (Italy), maintaining the Villages’ visual integrity and real-life shopping experience. Guests around the world can wander and navigate freely around each virtual Village, discovering the Collection and its commitment to extraordinary experiences through its experiential offers, hospitality and services and portfolio of luxury retailers, to prepare for an upcoming in-person visit in a compelling and immersive way.

A hallmark of each of the real-life Villages is The Apartment, a dedicated private space that welcomes the Village’s private clients during their visits. While the physical Apartments may be invitation-only, this experience invites guests to explore the luxurious Apartments virtually. In addition to discovering the private spaces, guests can also access the Collection’s signature hospitality offering by pre-booking in-Village services like Hands-free Shopping, joining its membership programme and even booking live, virtual personal shopping appointments. Outside The Apartment, in the virtual Village itself, The

Bicester Collection leverages the intrigue and enticement of real-life window shopping, inviting users to discover a selection of virtual boutiques, with each click on a display window bringing up a curated list of the Village’s luxury brand offering in different categories. These experiential virtual offerings allow The Bicester Collection to tailor the shopping experience to each guest’s needs before, during and after their visit to one of the physical Villages.

Highlighting the global reach of The Bicester Collection, a map introduces guests to the locations of the Villages around the world, allowing users to move seamlessly from one Village to another, contributing to a cohesive user experience where the joy of discovery plays a central role.

“The Bicester Collection’s new virtual experience extends our reach to international audiences, beyond our Villages’ physical locations, while emphasising our dedication to an unparalleled physical shopping experience. We continue to offer seamless hospitality and exquisite environments for our guests to discover as they begin their journey virtually before enjoying the physical Village experience.” said Sylvie Freund-Pickavance, Global Strategy and Business Development Director at The Bicester Collection, “While each Village presents a uniquely curated local brand mix, our guests can expect a consistent emphasis on impeccable hospitality across our Villages, including membership and personal shopping, making The Bicester Collection an ideal destination for frequent travellers.”

Emperia’s platform allows retailers to both build and maintain cutting-edge shoppable, virtual experiences, while leveraging data monitoring to optimise in-store virtual user experience, brand engagement and conversions.

“Our work with The Bicester Collection was both creative and technologically driven at once,” said Olga Dogadkina, co-founder and CEO at Emperia “from their attention to detail, to the brand’s dedication to client experience and its focus on its global network, this has made for a unique process which ties together the brand’s unique retail approach and its aim to appeal to new audiences through expanded distribution by the usage of new, advanced online channels.”

The Bicester Collection virtual retail experience is now live at: www.TheBicesterCollection.com