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Nespresso in Amsterdam: when an iced coffee becomes a brand experience

14 September 2026 by Flora

As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team visited the Nespresso ephemeral pop-up installed at the headquarters of fintech Adyen, in the heart of Amsterdam.

A Vertuo World scenography

To understand this pop-up, one must first understand what inspired it. In April 2026, Nespresso launched Vertuo World, described by the brand as the biggest campaign in its 40-year history with Dua Lipa as its new global ambassador. A major strategic repositioning: after two decades with George Clooney, Nespresso chose one of the most culturally influential icons of her generation to target a younger audience, more attuned to cold coffee, digital consumption and a contemporary aesthetic.

The Amsterdam pop-up is the physical translation of that campaign. Sky-blue tiling, pink arches, fuchsia inflatable furniture, blocks of transparent resin evoking giant ice cubes, the entire visual universe of Vertuo World comes to life in the space.

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Coffee served as a product demonstration

The coffee offered on-site is not a commercial gesture. It is a product demonstration disguised as a moment of conviviality. The visitor experiments, discovers iced coffee, and leaves with a sensory impression of the brand far more powerful than any advertising campaign could create alone. The pop-up extends the campaign to where advertising stops in taste, and in memory.

What this tells us about the future of retail

Global campaigns are no longer deployed solely on screens. They seek to exist physically to be lived rather than merely seen.

Nespresso is not simply selling a coffee. It is selling a coherent universe, from the advertising poster to the cup served on the spot. It is this continuity between the global campaign and its retail incarnation that makes the experience truly memorable.

Retail tours have become essential for tracking trends, innovating and drawing inspiration. Lemens & Partners analyses global retail movements through the lens of your strategic challenges, observing what works elsewhere to help shape the retail of tomorrow.

We design and lead bespoke retail tours with our international experts. The field is an endless source of ideas.

Get in touch to organise your next retail tour.

Cinéma Paradiso 2026: when brands step onto the cultural stage

9 September 2026 by Flora

From 1 to 4 July 2026, the 6th edition of Cinéma Paradiso took over the Carrousel du Louvre in the open air. As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team observed how certain brands succeeded in turning a cultural event into a retail activation platform. Three of them caught our attention.

Hinge: a karaoke box

Hinge, the dating app, was present at the festival for the second consecutive year. This year, the brand installed a karaoke booth at the heart of the Louvre courtyard. The concept: step in as two, sing, and leave with a photo taken mid-performance.

Hinge made no pitch about the app, no speech about dating. The brand simply created a situation, light, fun and complicit, in which two people share something together. Single or not, the memory is associated with Hinge.

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Peugeot: the red carpet as an experience

On a red carpet stood the latest Peugeot 408 in black. No brochure, no sales rep, simply a car, and the opportunity to be photographed alongside it, leaving with a printed photo in hand.

Nobody came to buy a Peugeot that evening. But everyone left with an image of themselves next to a desirable object. That is the principle of brand memory: the day that visitor thinks about changing their car, the image will be there.

Limoncè Spritz: Sicily and deckchairs

True to its universe, Limoncè, the Italian lemon liqueur brand and leader of the Limoncello category in Italy since 1994, installed a stand in its own image: lemon trees, yellow and white deckchairs, a resolutely solar and Mediterranean identity. Everything speaks of Sicily, sunshine and summer. The brand makes no attempt to explain its product, it embodies its spirit. At an open-air festival on a July evening, that is exactly what a visitor wants to feel when ordering a Spritz.

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What this tells us about the future of retail

These three brands have little in common and yet they share the same conviction: in a cultural context, direct selling is counter-productive. What works is experience. What stays is emotion.

Major cultural events have become fully-fledged retail activation platforms. For brands that know how to use them, they offer something precious: an available, receptive audience, and a context in which commercial pressure simply disappears.

We design and lead bespoke retail tours with our international experts. The field is an endless source of ideas.

Get in touch to organise your next retail tour.

Satisfy opens its first time boutiques in Paris

7 September 2026 by Flora

As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team attended the inauguration of Satisfy’s first two boutiques on 4 September 2026, at 47 and 54 rue de Saintonge in the Marais.

Founded in Paris and built on digital, the brand has established itself as a global reference among runners seeking alternative aesthetics. Since 4 September, Satisfy now offers two distinct spaces a few metres apart, each perfectly embodying one of the brand’s two identities.

47 rue de Saintonge: Satisfy Supply

You step into a raw space. On the floor, concrete slabs display the collection’s pieces as if they were exhibition objects. On the walls, a metal grid holds punk vinyl records with Minor Threat, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, alongside t-shirts and technical equipment. The space was conceived by architecture studio Ciguë alongside Brice Partouche, the brand’s founder and creative director. Notable pieces signed by Jean-Baptiste Durand are also on display.

Satisfy bears no resemblance to a conventional sports store. This is a space at the intersection of trail running, punk and counter-culture. To complete the overall experience, a bespoke ambient fragrance was created specifically for the store.

Pieces are presented in limited quantities, laid on their slabs like works of art, accompanied by sober, precise technical sheets.

54 rue de Saintonge: the Fuel Station

A few metres away, the second space operates as a literal refuelling station. A coffee counter offers drinks selected and described not by flavour, but by effect: “clean stimulation, alertness, focus”, “fat-based energy, endurance, steady energy”. Steel containers allow visitors to refill their water bottles on the spot.

Beside the counter, a fully curated nutrition library: Maurten bars, Pillar magnesium, Oskar cream, Reishi Sun Potion…

This is not a sports grocery. It is a preparation space, designed for those who treat running as a serious practice.

What this tells us about the future of retail

Digital-native brands that choose to establish a physical presence are not simply opening a shop. They are building a place that embodies their culture.

Two spaces, two functions, one identity. It is precisely this coherence between brand universe and physical space that makes this launch remarkable.

Designing this kind of space requires profiles capable of thinking simultaneously about cultural identity, spatial design and product curation. The kind of talent we help find every day.

At Lemens & Partners, we design and lead bespoke retail tours to help you observe what works elsewhere and build the retail of tomorrow. We also support companies in recruiting the creative profiles capable of bringing these experiences to life.

Retail tour, recruitment, or simply a conversation? Get in touch: contact@lemensandpartners.com

Kayali Café at Sephora Champs-Élysées: the gourmand retail experience speaking to Gen Z

3 September 2026 by Flora

As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team visited the Kayali Café pop-up at Sephora Champs-Élysées, open until 25 August. Founded in 2018 by Mona Kattan, whose name translates as “my imagination” in Arabic.

A universe designed to seduce

Everything is pink. A giant Boujee Kitty Caramel Milk flacon greets the visitor at the entrance. On the wall, the message: “Awaken your imagination.” The space is immediately recognisable, coherent and instagrammable.

At the heart of the concept are the Paires Gourmandes, Gourmand Pairings. Each fragrance is associated with a pastry presented under a glass cloche: fruit macaron, cherry black forest, vanilla tarte tatin, fresh fruit tart. This is not a conventional fragrance counter, it is an imaginary pâtisserie, designed to seduce the nose as much as the eye.

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Why it works with Gen Z

Kayali has built its identity around “layering”, the art of combining several fragrances to create your own signature scent. It is an invitation to co-create rather than simply purchase. And that is precisely where the brand resonates with Gen Z, the product becomes a tool for personal expression, not an imposed reference.

Kayali also speaks the right language. Fragrances are not classified by traditional olfactory families, but by moods, gourmand, fresh, cosy, fruity. An intuitive and immediate way to choose your scent, no expertise required.

The result: an olfactory playground in an entirely pink space, instagrammable by nature, where visitors come as much for the experience as for the product.

What this tells us about the future of retail

The brands that perform with Gen Z are not necessarily those that do the most but those that speak to them best. They are the ones that create a space in which the visitor feels understood, welcomed, and free to build their own experience.

Retail tour, recruitment, or simply a conversation? Get in touch: contact@lemensandpartners.com

The Champs-Élysées: a playground for sport and lifestyle

19 June 2026 by Flora

As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team observed two retail activations on the Champs-Élysées: PSG Café and the Wilson Tennis Garden pop-up, two sports brands that are building much more than just a product. The Champs-Élysées has always been a showcase. Sport is establishing itself there as a brand culture, a way of life and an experience in its own right.

PSG Café: when a football club becomes a home

Part of the PSG boutique on the Champs-Élysées, the PSG Café offers much more than just a coffee break. Cups emblazoned with the logo, branded glasses, madeleines in the club’s colours, drinks with evocative names (PSG Spritz, PSG Spirit) and a carefully selected Rwanda Women Coffee. To take away or enjoy on the premises, in a sleek, minimalist white space.

It is a branded café, designed for an international audience, catering to tourists as well as supporters. The MyParis loyalty programme extends the experience beyond a one-off visit: discounts, access to PSG TV, a gaming zone and family offers. In this way, the club is building a community, not just a customer base.

PSG no longer just sells shirts. It sells a Parisian lifestyle.

Wilson Tennis Garden: Roland-Garros comes to Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées

At the entrance to Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées, Wilson has set up its Tennis Garden. As soon as you enter, the floor transforms into a red clay court. A corridor lined with large black-and-white photographs of legendary tennis players leads to a green dome covered in ivy, at the heart of which the Wilson tennis clothing collection is on display.

This pop-up has been set up to coincide with the French Open, which took place from 24 May to 7 June. Wilson, the tournament’s official equipment supplier since 2020, is capitalising on the tournament’s momentum to establish itself in a new light: no longer simply as an equipment supplier, but as a style brand.

Wilson no longer sells just equipment. It sells the elegance of tennis.

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What this tells us about the future of retail

PSG and Wilson are using sport as a starting point to build a brand universe that extends far beyond the original product.

Whether it’s coffee, fashion, lifestyle or community, sport has become one of the most powerful drivers of experiential retail. And the Champs-Élysées, with its constant flow of international visitors, is the ideal setting to demonstrate this.

Designing these spaces requires creative professionals capable of simultaneously considering brand identity, spatial design and the visitor’s emotional experience. These are the talents that Lemens & Partners helps to find every day.

We design and lead bespoke retail tours with our international experts. The field is an endless source of ideas.

Get in touch to organise your next retail tour.

Etam Summer Club: A Parisian flagship store takes to the seaside

3 June 2026 by Flora

As part of our retail tours, the Lemens & Partners team observed a retail activation at the Etam Haussmann flagship store in Paris.

Visible from dozens of metres away on the street, it’s hard to miss. Etam has transformed its Paris flagship store into a veritable summer retreat with its Summer Club, a kiosk set up overnight, both in the shop window and inside the store.

Blue and white stripes, a customised Fiat 500, a map of the Côte d’Azur stretching from Marseille to Monaco, and a life-size beach hut. You’re not just walking into a shop, you’re setting off for the South.

The Summer Club doesn’t just sell swimwear. It sells the promise of a holiday. And it all begins long before you step inside the shop.

etam-summer-club-cabine-plage-interieur-magasin-retail tour Paris

Photo 2 : etam-summer-club-cabine-plage-interieur-magasin

We design and lead bespoke retail tours with our international experts. The field is an endless source of ideas.

Get in touch to organise your next retail tour.

Nespresso in Amsterdam: when an iced coffee becomes a brand experience

A Vertuo World scenography

Coffee served as a product demonstration

What this tells us about the future of retail

Cinéma Paradiso 2026: when brands step onto the cultural stage

Hinge: a karaoke box

Satisfy opens its first time boutiques in Paris

Kayali Café at Sephora Champs-Élysées: the gourmand retail experience speaking to Gen Z

The Champs-Élysées: a playground for sport and lifestyle

PSG Café: when a football club becomes a home

Wilson Tennis Garden: Roland-Garros comes to Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées

Etam Summer Club: A Parisian flagship store takes to the seaside

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