Polette creates a spectacle with its omnichannel showroom

Since opening in 2011, Polette has been revolutionizing the eyewear market. Offering en vogue frames without breaking the bank, the glasses brand describes itself as a company that does things differently. Scrapping intermediaries, Polette simplifies the process of creating and selling glasses and with. With six showrooms and counting, we wanted to tap into their experience with their Bouncepad products.

Primarily an online store, Polette was searching for a way to bring its online shop to the real world. Florijn Steenhuisen, market developer at Polette explains “We are an online concept and we have these showrooms as the physical expression of the website. People still order on the website when in-store, but we want to show them that they can trust us and give them a nice way of placing that order.”

Polette has Bouncepads installed in all of their showrooms. Worried about the risk of theft and struggling with spatial limitations, the eyewear business turned to Bouncepad.

“In the beginning we used iMacs but quickly realized we needed something smaller that integrates better into the showroom design. We did have a robbery which showed us that even with an expensive lock it only takes ten seconds to steal an iMac. With Bouncepads, iPads are much less prone to theft.”

Tablets are dotted around the showrooms with the Polette online store open in the browser, locked in parental guide so customers can’t go out of the browser. They are also used to slack internally, control the music and the camera is used to help with customer service issues.

Polette swapped their desktops for tablets because they are cost-effective and intuitive for people who don’t usually work with computers. Florijn exaplins, “Tablets save a lot of space because iMacs are big and require a table. Often our showrooms are in the center of the city and so are between 60 and 150 square meters. We really want to use every square meter to sell our products and want to waste as little space as possible on tables and computers.”

Once they decided to install tablets to their showrooms, they needed to protect that investment with the perfect case or stand. When searching for the right enclosure, they first tried a cheaper option.

“It didn’t fit with our aesthetic which is quite minimal, so we switched over quite quickly to Bouncepad. I looked around to see the options and just didn’t see any other alternatives that matched Bouncepad. I thought, these are definitely the market leaders and since then we’ve always stuck with Bouncepad.”

As well as fitting in with the design of the shop, security and space-saving were other qualities Polette wanted from their tablet enclosures.

“This is really why we went for the wall-mounted option. The Branch has always been my favorite Bouncepad product because you can install them in tiny corners. However, we switched to the Floostanding model for our newest Amsterdam showroom because it has a little more flexibly. Sometimes you change the design of the showroom and the Floorstanding is good because you can move it around easily.”

“The fact I saw Bouncepads in museums and art galleries helped with the decision. In my eyes, if a modern art gallery chooses to work with Bouncepad then I think they’ll have thought about the aesthetics a lot and I trust that.”