AliExpress Plaza New Retail
"Más cerca que nunca"
My Approach
Take the lead on the design work of this project, such as leading ahead of brainstorming and sketching meetings in the office; Aliexpress offline store branding, Store style definition, and visual design for the opening ceremony and marketing.
Design project management: As the main designer internally cooperated with different partner design and brand teams to work on interior design, site construction, furniture design, brand curation, and product showcase.
Overview
"Más cerca que nunca" -Closer than ever!
AliExpress already had a significant impact on Spain's Online market. The overall Spain online market only takes sharing of 6% GMV of the whole shopping economy, which shows us a massive portation of offline business. but we are not yet an offline participant.
The Challenges
95% of our brands in the store are 3C, lack higher visiting frequency categories; The timeline is a big issue for this project, Only two months from scratch to opening; Play multiple roles simultaneously, lots of managing coordination and communication work are required by acting as a UX designer.
Team member
Spain UED Team
Irene zhang: Design manager/ UX Designer/ Marketing Designer
Simon: Interior designer (out souring)
Guillermo: Content strategy
Brainstorming
It all begins with the good process of involving everyone in the brainstorming stage. As a design team, I lead the innovation process to create good ideas for the business. we were involved with the business and dev teams to develop cool ideas with bigger feasibility.
This project has only 2 months from scratch to open, So bringing everyone on the same page and process is essential for our project.
Ideas sketching
Más cerca que nunca
Más cerca que nunca
GRAND OPEN
July 27
Xanadu, Barcelona
Some ideas of how to interact with the users
But what is the key message we try to say？
What makes us take this step to open the physical store in Spain, and what are we trying to bring to our customers?
We try to bring TRUST to the customer. Before we are in China, you can only see a photo of our product. Now, we are here in your city in Spain, you can touch the product, and you don’t need to wait.
We are close than ever! Más cerca que nunca( in Spanish)
Integrated AE brand awareness and image in Spain. Bring the brands crossed over from China to Spain.
Key visual and design plan
After key message is confirmed we move fast to the key visual and design plan on opening day.
key visual on the Curtains and gifts On opening day
Part of marketing materials
Badget, paper bag, store merchants
Reflection
This was one of the most intense and fast-paced projects I’ve worked on — short timeline, many roles, and constant unknowns. As a UX designer, I had to embrace ambiguity and move forward with imperfect information.
There were things I wish had been done better. But being this close to real users — hearing their feedback, seeing their smiles in the offline store — reminded me of what matters:
Design that connects, resonates, and works in real life.
It was a rare moment to feel the real value of AliExpress in local markets.
