Apparel Online India Magazine August 1st Issue 2018 | Page 10

Chanel's flagship store in St. Tropez
Travel Retail: Tapping into the shopper
side of tourists
T
he last few years have seen a rise of
expenses on travel and experience-
oriented activities like never before.
The tourism industry’s growth has also
shouldered the rise of new and exotic high-
end retail hubs alongside. Offering huge
potential to a plethora of different brands,
shopping has become one of the main
aspects that people consider before even
deciding where to go on holiday!
A recent report published by Allied
Market Research discovered that the
global travel retail market was valued at
US $ 69.5 billion in 2016, and is projected
to reach US $ 125.1 billion by 2023,
growing at a CAGR of 8.9 per cent from
2017 to 2023. The report further reveals
that after Middle East’s affluent luxury
shoppers, China is leading the pack from
Asia-Pacific, closely followed by US and
Russia. Whereas in terms of markets,
Europe currently leads the game due to its
strong luxury product offering.
For retailers, travel retail is a massive
opportunity as not only is it easier to
entice people to walk into stores, when
they already are in a mood to explore,
but it is also better to meet people in their
happiest and most relaxed state of mind.
Touristic retail spots also have the de facto
experiential advantage, thanks to being
surrounded by a shrine of new activities
and cultural newness that realtors often try
to recreate in shopping malls.
CRACKING THE
TOURISM CODE
Tourism retail is forecasted for
exponential growth but has its own
challenges. In order to open a shop,
retailers/brands need to understand
the psyche of the touristic visitation of
that city – are the ‘tourist shoppers’
travelling with an intent to shop, or are
they indulging themselves as they discover
the locale?
A little research goes a long way! Knowing
your shopper is integral to this model of
retail, and brands must create heavily
curated assortments to stock in their
destination flagships, otherwise it will be a
massive failure. “The global travel market
is a fascinating, ever-changing crossroad
of humanity for legions of people on the
move. Many of them are from key emergent
markets and are consistently high spenders
in shopping terms. The Chinese are the
most obvious examples but there are many
others – from Russians to Indonesians to
Nigerians, and so on,” said Martin Moodie,
a travel retail industry expert and
Founder of The Moodie Report.
10 Apparel Online India | AUGUST 1-15, 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
To illustrate, take young Australian label
Zimmermann that just opened a boutique
in the little islandic town of St. Tropez,
joining the likes of Gucci, Miu Miu, and
Phillip Plein. Nicky Zimmermann,
Founder of the buzzy new high-end brand
explained the location choice saying, “A
lot of the South American girls, they’re
in our Miami store in Bal Harbour and
then they’re in Saint Tropez on holiday
and there’s a real connectivity: the
city where they shop and then they
holiday.”
From Prada’s travelling pop-up that
debuted in Macau before moving onto
other far flung cities to Chanel and Dior
announcing a temporary shop in Greece
earlier this month – luxury brands have
always known where to catch their
shopper! This is why certain