From clicks-and-bricks to online-to-offl ine: the evolving e-tail/ retail space as immersive media in Hong Kong and mainland China

When Harry Gordon Selfridge fi rst opened his eponymous department store on Oxford Street in 1909, London’s retailing industry was revolutionized. Selfridge ‘literally changed everything about the way Londoners shopped’ (Woodhead, 2007, p. 1) with its artistic shop windows, inventive in-store promotions, glitzy fashion shows and other entertainment, as well as premium customer services and facilities that mesmerized every elite consumer. In the adventurous American retailer’s vision, shopping was at once a visual and tactile, gratifying and pleasurable experience that could be best relished in ‘a moment of private self-indulgence and enjoyment’ (Woodhead, 2007, p. 34).