Topshop’s splash with 65-metre in-store waterslide

Remember when all it took to run a successful retail store was some products, a few shelves and racks and a cash register?

Times have certainly changed, with shops now pouring as much time and effort into making their store an ‘experience’ for shoppers as they do into actually selling their wares.

And Topshop took things to another level with an in-store display that had to be seen to be believed.

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The clothing emporium’s Oxford Circus store in London was home to an enormous waterslide, which was installed to promote their summer swimwear collection.

The slide spanned 65sqm and traversed two windows inside the store.

The 65m slide, which netted Topshop the ‘Window Display of the Year’ prize in a competition run by Frame, snaked its way through each of the store’s floors, finishing at its swimwear section.

It also featured an actual pool in the shop’s front window, while the store was pumped full of the scent of sunscreen and coconut, as well as the sound of seagulls squawking and people splashing around, to create the feeling of being at a water park.

The slide was to promote Topshop’s summer swimwear campaign.

But while the slide was very much real, there was a catch.

It was actually a virtual reality experience, with shoppers putting on a pair of goggles at the top of the slide and embarking on a quick (but water-free) journey that took them down the slide, in between buses and shoppers on Oxford St and past a number of well-known London buildings, before bringing them to rest on a beach.