Westfield to launch The Trending Store pop-up selling clothes trending online

Westfield is getting set to launch the first ever bricks-and-mortar fashion boutique selling only what is trending online in real time – via the power of AI machine learning – following a partnership with trends experts Next Atlas.

The store will run from 3-7 July in association with long-standing charity partner Save the Children, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Using the power of AI machine learning, Next Atlas tracks over 400,000 global influencers to establish which fashion items are hot that day. A list of trending items will then be given to a team of Westfield stylists, who’ll hunt out corresponding items from across the entire shopping centre each morning, ready to drop in the pop-up.

Myf Ryan, chief marketing officer for Westfield, says: “One of the biggest industry trends is the merging of online and physical retail. We know that the UK is shopping online, but we’re also seeing and hearing from consumers that they crave the human factor that shopping in person provides – the ability to touch, feel, try and seek advice, to ensure the products are right for you. The Trending Store provides the best of both worlds via a unique shopping experience, one that we believe represents the way we will all be shopping in the future.”

Mario Coletti, Managing Director at Next Atlas, adds: “Traditional retailers have always used stores to gather customer information. The Trending Store is revolutionising store management by using our platform to make stores a destination of data science rather than a source of it. It's a pioneering example of how AI will be relevant for customers as well as a way to make stores more effective in generating enhanced customer experiences.”

The store will be powered by this live data, serving up 100 trending items to celebrate Save the Children’s 100 years of doing whatever it takes to protect vulnerable children around the world. The Trending Store will hold ever changing fashion looks based on what people are wearing right now, catering for budgets big and small.