Facing high rent rates and competing with the world’s largest fashion brands, Hong Kong-based independent designers struggle to reach more clients. As they cannot afford prime store locations or compete with the big brand marketing budgets, our challenge was to develop an innovative approach to business that would provide a unique in-store experience and help them acquire new customers.

Online stores use the 'You may also like…' feature to suggest additional items for purchase consideration. With Shop Elsewhere, we brought this to the real world as designers recommended items that would compliment an in-store purchase; only the recommended items were from another designer. With this cross-recommendation model, each participating designer instantly increased their reach while also creating a unique in-store experience for customers as they received first-hand recommendations from the designers themselves.

Shop Elsewhere is a platform where brands collaborate by recommending each other’s products through an in-store activation. For each item in store, a tag displaying a unique QR code is created. By scanning the QR, the customer accesses a mobile website where they discover a matching item from another designer. A map showing the other designer’s location drives the customer in-store to buy the recommended item.

Five designers formed collaborations within the first week offering recommendations for more than 40 design combinations and helping raise traffic to each other’s stores. The movement is still growing with more designers joining across Asia. Shop Elsewhere has also seen a positive response from customers, who generally shy away from larger brands and seek out new designers, as the movement helps them discover new designers that match their own taste.