Influx

Maytag has been testing a concept store model in which appliance shoppers can actually test-drive appliances in mock-up kitchens and laundry rooms. Oven shoppers can bake a batch of cookies; washer/dryer customers can do a batch of their own laundry. The atmosphere is welcoming and home-like, even down to the playroom/TV room where you can watch a movie with the kids while your cookies bake. They report that over 70% of customers that walk in the door actually purchase. Plus, the concept store also creates rich experiences of the Maytag brand, helping facilitate a worthwhile, tellable story for customers to bring back to their circles of friends in a category where word of mouth and friends’ advice is the most influential part of pre-purchase research.
Article entitled, ‘Maytag encourages customers to test-drive’

Sony is testing a very similar concept store in an attempt to build brand-relevance among women. The test site is in a mall that gets particularly high female-traffic and the Sony products are put in realistic mocked-up rooms and slice-of-life home contexts.
Article entitled, ‘Sony’s answer to the Apple Store’

The insight behind both the Maytag and Sony stores seems to be that, to female shoppers, the value of a particular product in a traditional rack of several versions of that product may be less meaningful, less inviting and convey less value than one or two of those same products actually being used in their eventual contexts: real rooms in a real home.
For more concept store and brand store analysis, see the Influx white paper: ‘CREATING AND CONTROLLING BRAND EXPERIENCE’