In-house restaurants, architect-designed fit-outs and training spaces for customers and staff: Melbourne’s retailers are getting creative in the fight against online shopping.
Leading the charge is make-up behemoth Mecca’s newest opening – a “Meccaversity” in its flagship store hosting a row of make-up chairs with mirrors, cameras and lighting running along one wall, an auditorium with seating for 100 and a seminar area for 60.
As increasing numbers of customers shop online, Mecca and retailers such as Rodd & Gunn, which has an in-house restaurant, and Six Six eyewear, which offers custom tinting in its Kennedy Nolan-designed store, are trying to lure shoppers back to bricks-and-mortar stores by focusing on the retail experience.
It’s a strategy that seems to be working. The City of Melbourne’s most recent economy snapshot shows December 2025 recorded the highest spending levels on record, at $1.2 billion for the month.
Retail vacancy rates have continued to fall as more businesses reopen or move into the CBD. The number of previously empty shopfronts that have been reactivated is up 13.5 per cent year-on-year across the municipality.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece said foot traffic in Bourke Street Mall was up nearly 40 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024.
“With new flagship stores like Mecca and Rodd & Gunn opening their doors and more big names like MUJI set to follow, Bourke Street Mall is the beating heart of Melbourne’s retail scene,” he said. “It’s fantastic to see so many exciting shopfronts lighting up the city, powered by low vacancy rates.”
Mecca’s new education space is located at the rear of its Bourke Street store and is expected to host hundreds of staff and customers a week for everything from breathwork sessions to make-up and beauty masterclasses and seminars.
The beauty giant will run training for its staff from Monday to Wednesday in the 200-square-metre space. Customer events will be held from Thursday to Sunday.
While the name Meccaversity might bring to mind the Pond’s Institute, manager and make-up artist Amanda Liang said the inspiration was more akin to Apple’s genius bars.
“Customers are going to be obsessed with it,” she said. “What we do every day on the floor is share our tips and tricks from these trainings and moments as a team, and we are opening the door and letting customers experience that as well.”
Mecca’s chief new concepts officer, Maria Tsaousis, said the retailer had focused on staff education since it opened its first store on Toorak Road and now reinvested 15 per cent of its $1.2 billion annual turnover into team training.
With 7000 staff across Australia and New Zealand and 500 in the Bourke Street store alone, Tsaousis said opening the training space made sense, even though it was not linked with any external accreditation.
“The move to experiential retail is not new,” Tasousis said. “With the onset of AI agents who are also making shopping more convenient and efficient, I think shopping is becoming just more and more commoditised. Not only Mecca, but retailers in general will have to start offering something more unique. Otherwise, we will be hollowed out.”
Tasousis said customers were seeking entertainment, tangible experiences and things they could share with their friends.
The retailer delivers about 1500 beauty services a week, and the Meccaversity opening gives it scope to increase that number.
“It’s the extension of what we’ve been doing for the last 28 years, which is giving people reasons to come into store, which is beyond the transaction,” Tsousis said.
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