ERT Award-winning AV chain Superfi has opened a new store in Camden, north London.
The upstairs area of the shop has a smart-home apartment with a kitchen and living room, while the ground-floor area is aimed at younger consumers who want to buy fashionable headphones and stream music.
Formerly a Pret a Manger coffee shop, the store is located a short distance from Mornington Crescent Underground station.
Superfi has had a store in Camden for 20 years, but left its original premises in February. The new shop officially opened at the end of May.
Speaking exclusively to ERT, Superfi managing director Dan Abrams said: “With the new store, we’ve tried to choose brands that aren’t commoditised on the internet. We need people to have a reason to come into the store, so we’re selling higher up the range and trying to make it so that people can’t just come into the shop, Google a product and then buy it from Amazon on their way home.”
Added sales director Jurek Mucha: “Downstairs in this store, we’ve tried to create an environment that’s more attractive to a younger audience.
“The hi-fi market is deteriorating when it comes to footfall – we need to bring a new younger audience in. One of their favourite things to do is to listen to music.”
Commenting on Superfi’s decision to move into selling the smart home, Mr Mucha said: “The kick-start for that was last year’s ERT Awards and the Retra conference, where there was a message being replicated – ‘if you don’t change, you’re not going to be in business’. To come out of your comfort zone and go into an industry you don’t know is scary, but we’ve had to do it.”
Superfi, which has high-street stores in London, the North and the Midlands, won last year’s ERT Consumer Electronics Retailer of the Year.
- See our profile article on the new Superfi London store in the July/August issue of ERT, which will be a smart-home special.
- To enter this year’s ERT Awards (entries close at midday on Tuesday, June 19) please go to: https://ertonline.co.uk/awards/turningpointlive.html
