Oxford Street and White City have become the first two refurbished flagship stores to welcome customers, as VodafoneThree continues to press forward with retail estate transformation.
VodafoneThree’s Oxford Street Experience store is no stranger to retail innovation. When it was first unveiled by Vodafone UK in 2018, it boasted everything from experiential zones to workspaces for business customers.
Today, however, when you set eyes on the newly re-opened flagship store, the first thing that strikes you is the fact that Vodafone and Three brands are sitting side by side.
Alongside its White City counterpart, the Oxford Street store is the first of what will eventually become seven flagship stores to be refitted by the end of 2027.
Part of a retail estate transformation following the Vodafone-Three merger in June 2025, these refits are an important step towards bringing the two brands together under one roof, as VodafoneThree establishes the largest retail footprint of any mobile network operator in the UK.
From traditional phone shop to technology showroom
These flagship stores also represent how changing consumer habits have led to an evolution in the retail experience.
With many customers (29%) preferring to see, touch and feel phones on display before purchasing, gone are the long rows of boxed handsets behind counters.1
Instead, devices are laid out ready for customers to explore themselves, while the surrounding screens showcase complementary products and services, such as Vodafone SuperMobile™.
And, with research showing that 69% would find it beneficial for stores to repair phones as well as sell them, services like ‘Fix & Go’ are available to do just that.1
How VodafoneThree is supporting the UK high street
The flagship stores form just one part of VodafoneThree’s renewed commitment to the UK high street, having also set out plans to remain in every town it currently has a presence.
Doing so will support more than 4,500 jobs, while generating an estimated retail spend of £168.5 million each year for the UK economy, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
“We know how important stores like ours are to the health of the high street and the communities which rely on them,” says Jon Shaw, Consumer Operations Director, VodafoneThree.
“From shopping devices, seeking support from our experts or getting their phone repaired, we are proud to serve our customers where they are and reaffirm our commitment to the UK high street.”
Looking ahead, this commitment is only set to strengthen, with plans underway to refresh flagship stores across Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Cardiff.
Notes to Editors:
1 A sample of 1,200 visitors to 30 VodafoneThree mobile phone stores was interviewed in January and February 2026 by CRR interviewers. In order to provide a representative sample, the stores chosen were in shopping areas and shopping malls of city and town centres in a variety of locations in all corners of the United Kingdom, from Great Yarmouth to Burnley, from Leeds to Glasgow Buchanan Street, and from Belfast to Winchester.
Fix & Go by Vodafone is currently available at 18 stores across the UK, including: Burnley, Belfast Victoria Square, Cardiff, Edinburgh West, Glasgow Buchanan Street, Hanley Potteries, Hull St Stephen’s, Leicester, London Brent Cross, London Oxford Street, London Stratford, London White City, Manchester Trafford, Plymouth, Reading Oracle Centre, Southampton Westquay, Sunderland and Swindon.
About the Centre for Retail Research
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR), now in its twenty-ninth year, is an independent research group specialising in retail and consumer research projects in Britain and Western Europe. The CRR examines customer-spending trends, the changing retail marketplace, the growth of online retailing, technology and changing payment systems. Its reports on the retail sector are widely quoted by the BBC, ITV, The Economist, The Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, the Sun, The Guardian and even Google’s AI. It has conducted work for major retailers, including John Lewis & Partners, Tesco, Next, Currys, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative and Boots Group, the British Retail Consortium, and for third-party companies such as Visa Europe, RetailMeNot, Axis Communications, Kelkoo, Samsung, Voucher Codes, Checkpoint and Sony. The Director of the Centre for Retail Research is Professor Joshua Bamfield, an economist and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, who holds degrees from Oxford and Nottingham Universities, his dissertation topic being the measurement of sources of retail productivity. He has taught economics and strategic management in British Universities, managed MBA and undergraduate courses, and has implemented EPOS and back-office systems in several British retailers and suppliers. The CRR was originally a research group at a British university. He has given expert evidence about retail change to committees of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
