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Printemps<\/strong> is one of the oldest department stores in the world, yet most Americans have never heard the name, much less know how to pronounce it. That all changed in March when the French luxury retail chain opened its first U.S. location in Manhattan\u2019s financial district. The store has been generating a lot of buzz since its opening, driven by its stunning interior and integrated hospitality spaces, although pronouncing its name correctly is still a problem (essentially it\u2019s \u201cprehn-tomh,\u201d which means \u201cspring\u201d in French). <\/p>\n For the company, which has been a mainstay of French retail since 1865, its absence from the American retail lexicon is an advantage because it gives Printemps the opportunity to start fresh and test new ideas. <\/strong>While Printemps is technically a department store (or grands magasins<\/em> as they say in French), it\u2019s always been more than that, serving as a cradle of retail innovation from its beginnings; the store was one of the first to offer set prices<\/strong> and then discount slow-moving goods <\/strong>in large sales, as well as recognize the irresistible draw of a window display<\/strong>, for example.<\/p>\n The chain\u2019s new NYC cousin fits into this history of innovation, but with some significant differences. At just over 50,000 square feet<\/strong> the store is smaller than its French counterparts, and the design is highly conceptual, with a deliberately non-linear layout that draws inspiration from its specific locale while remaining connected to its French roots. In fact, the NYC store will act as an incubator for tech-focused retail innovation that could potentially travel back across the Atlantic to Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re part of 1 Wall Street, which is a residential building, so the idea is that we\u2019re an extension of the building, a French apartment in the heart of New York<\/strong>,\u201d said Mary Jane Puangco, Chief Experience Officer of Printemps in an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s French savoir faire<\/em> meets American hospitality. <\/strong>That\u2019s why we brought in food and beverage in such an important way throughout the space \u2014 we wanted that full sense of hospitality. We want people to hang and stay here as long as they want. We didn\u2019t want it to be transactional; there are plenty of beautiful places to shop in the city that are transactional, but we wanted to bring back the human touch.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n This idea of \u201cdemocratic luxury\u201d<\/strong> was an essential pillar of the design, but it\u2019s only one of the larger philosophies that drove the development of the store\u2019s stunning final form \u2014 other key themes include the store\u2019s role as an ambassador of French culture<\/strong> in America and the idea of \u201csubtle technology\u201d<\/strong> (like \u201cquiet luxury\u201d applied to tech).<\/p>\n The result is much more than a store; it\u2019s a true experience that one travels through, visiting not departments but rooms in a French apartment. Shoppers move from the ground level Playroom (offering streetwear) and its accompanying caf\u00e9, \u00a0then go up into the Salon (womenswear), Boudoir (jewelry and eveningwear) and Salle de Bain (in-house spa), among other spaces. To top it off, the Salon Vert champagne bar gives guests a chance to pause and take it all in.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the platforms of the project is really this idea of being ambassadorial, of bringing Paris to New York and creating a platform for cultural discovery<\/strong>,\u201d explained Puangco. \u201cHence the decision to embrace the names of these rooms and keep them in French.\u201d<\/p>\n Two separate but connected experiences continue this ethos \u2014 a wine shop<\/strong> with its own entrance on Broadway that will be opening soon, and the Maison Passerelle<\/strong> fine dining restaurant, which opened earlier this month. \u201cPasserelle\u201d means \u201cbridge\u201d in French, and the restaurant aims to use food as another bridge between cultures, said Puangco.<\/p>\n Puangco herself sees her role as Chief Experience Officer in a similar way, describing her mission as \u201ccreating a brand perspective for a department store,\u201d and while the presence of technology in the store may be subtle, it was crucial to bringing this nuanced vision to life. To pull it off, the Printemps team worked with interior architect\u00a0Laura Gonzalez and design and technology studio L+R.<\/p>\n \u201cWe work a lot within the luxury space, so we\u2019re always trying to figure out when technology should be in place and when it shouldn\u2019t, when it should be enabling experience over being the experience itself,<\/strong>\u201d said Alex Levin, Founding Partner of L+R in an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>. \u201cWe talk a lot about digital craftsmanship<\/strong> within our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of Printemps this ended up meaning almost no visible tech outside of several strategically placed wayfinding screens throughout the store. And yet, even the process of determining the design and placement of these screens was enabled by technology.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first three-and-a-half<\/strong> years the store was under construction, but we had to make decisions like, \u2018How big should the digital signage be, what orientation should the screens have, how far off the floor should they be?\u2019\u201d said Levin. \u201cWe also wanted to make sure that they didn\u2019t compete in terms of placement and take away from the overall experience.<\/strong> The store is so photogenic, but a photo of a screen isn\u2019t the most beautiful thing, so we had to figure out that dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n To do it, L+R created a custom Vision Pro app that leveraged spatial computing<\/strong> to help MJ and her team visualize the store in 3D before it existed in real life. \u201cWe were able to make decisions on things like the size of the screens immediately, where we had been going back and forth,\u201d said Levin. \u201cIf I were to ask you, 45 inches or 43 inches, you wouldn\u2019t really know what the difference is. But I remember the day MJ put [the headset] on and it was just, \u2018Oh yeah, 43.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Printemps team also used the Vision Pro app to test out the overall customer experience, which led to crucial pivots that helped determine the store\u2019s final form. For example, \u201cwhen we first started doing the layout of the store, we had a lot of screens,\u201d said Puangco. \u201cThis layout has never existed [at a Printemps], it doesn\u2019t exist in Paris, and we were excited by the opportunity of marrying it to an omnichannel vision and intertwining the digital element, but when we started going through it [on the Vision Pro] room by room and thinking about the customer experience, we realized it was way too much.\u201d<\/p>\n The screens were scaled back, and those that remain feature a QR code that takes visitors to a guided mobile experience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Indeed, as other retailers are adding more and more consumer-facing tech, in this department store technology has been firmly relegated to a support role<\/strong>: \u201cWe only wanted technology that would empower the staff to give better service and screens that enhance the customer\u2019s experience, not pushing information but taking them along and helping them discover,\u201d said Puangco.<\/p>\n In addition to the wayfinding screens, that tech also includes a content-focused website (no ecommerce) that showcases the store experience and modern POS systems, both built on Shopify<\/strong>, as well as a unified CMS system. RFID technology is still being implemented across the store and will be particularly is crucial for staff because \u201cthe store is not organized by department, we\u2019re merchandising by lifestyle, so we brought in RFID to help them find merchandise quickly<\/strong>,\u201d explained Puangco.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one has been able to really execute this idea of omnichannel, because they\u2019re all living with legacy systems that aren\u2019t agile enough,\u201d she added. \u201cBut here we\u2019re starting with zero, so we didn\u2019t take any of the infrastructure that France uses. Everything from the merchandising platform to the POS system, the website platform, all of it is completely new. This is meant to be a test lab for Paris. That\u2019s why we\u2019re able to really branch out and think of how to do things in different ways.<\/strong> We\u2019ll test and try here and if things work, they might potentially adopt it in France.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/FACADE-PRINTEMPS-HAUSSMANN-2022.png\")
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The Philosophies of Printemps NYC<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\u2018Subtle Technology,\u2019 but Tech Nonetheless<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tech that Supports Without Stealing the Show<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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