New era for showrooms

One of the UK’s biggest bike brands is making a radical change to the way its showrooms look.

At leading Piaggio dealers you’re likely to feel like you’ve entered a top notch bike show when you wander in – complete with light, sound and video backdrops.

The first of the new-style ‘PiaggioSpace’ showrooms got an official launch on Tuesday, August 10 at dealer JD Thompson in St Albans, Herts.

The idea is to create a more enticing atmosphere to those put off by more traditional ‘oily wrag’ dealerships – and to offer a consistent brand image for the company across Europe.

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JD Thompson’s now lays out a small number of bikes on classy plinths with room for browsers to wander around at their leisure.

The concept won’t work for all dealers – you need decent additional storage space to keep the majority of the stock for a start – but Piaggio says it will be rolled out across the UK with others opening before the end of the year.

Boss John Thompson said the idea is already working.

“I typically sell 50 scooters a month. We’ve had the new PiaggioSpace concept in place for a little over a week now. In seven days we had sold 19 scooters.”