Retail glam for airports

With this trend, airports have become the ideal platform to modernise and create new opportunities not just for advertising and branding but for retailing as well. In such circumstances, it is viable to have retail presence at the domestic and international Indian airports.

The likes of Gitanjali, Swarovski and Hidesign have set up stores at several domestic and international airport terminals in the country. When it comes to setting up a store at the airports, the design, aesthetics in-store should be of primary consideration. Stores should be especially customised to suit the travel retail needs which leads to a healthy mix of merchandise mix, and hence require change in the store interiors.

Airport v/s standalone format

A travel retail set up is very much different from the standalone stores across the country due to the difference in the profile and shopping needs of the customers. “With an ideal size of 800 to 1000 sq feet, the idea is not just to set a spacious room for the display of the products, but also to create an environment in sync with our brand equity. The creation of the stores for us is thus a strategic decision than a mere concept of design,” says Sahil Malik, Managing Director, Da Milano Leathers Pvt Ltd.  Da Milano has positioned their stores in the airports.  The cost for setting up a store of 800 sq. ft and designing it comes to around Rs 20-25 lakh. “A lot of investment goes into creating the look and feel of the store, and stocking it. On an average,  the store set up costs could be between Rs 40,000 - Rs 50,000 per sq ft or even higher depending on the type of jewellery that is stocked,” says Rahul Vira, CEO, Gili & Head - Retail, Gitanjali Lifestyle. The Swarovski stores at the airports reflect concepts that Swarovski consider an integral part of their visual appeal and emphasise on modern luxe and the art of precision.  The strategically placed highlighters in the Swarovski store and a soothing intensity of the light through vestibule lighting and the backdrops make up for the concept of an international standard, which is a necessity within the airport formats. “The format allows us to customise based on store layouts. While we try and use every bit of wall space and use a lot more shelves, we strive to maintain an experience similar to other Hidesign stores,” says Dilip Kapur, President, Hidesign.

Consumer in focus  

Today’s new age traveller is the target audience, as he or she looks forward to and expects to have a world-class experience when travelling. The consumer visits the airport for the purpose of travelling; shopping at the airport is a secondary consideration. The airport consumers are predominantly higher income group individuals, who look out for highly aspirational brands; consumers are into gifting as well as self consumption. It is advisable to run promotions such as gifts with purchases in order to lure the customer. “Our target audience is the entire gamut of international travellers, many of whom are frequent travellers and are familiar with international standards of quality and variety of products and brands. Also, the customers are usually in a paucity of time, hence the presentation of the product matters most to them as they are pressed to take their shopping decisions swiftly,” says Manish Preenja, Buyer - Fashion & Luxury, Delhi Duty Free Services Pvt Ltd. “Frequent travellers, who do not find adequate time to plan the purchase, prefer to visit the airport store and purchase for all their needs. The target customers usually prefer laptop and office bags besides, accessories that are useful during travel,” says Alok Bishnoi, Director Sales, Samsonite South Asia Pvt Ltd. The concept has given brands an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience across India and the world.

Merchandising model

Most purchases for specialty products at the airport are impulse purchases and not planned. It is, therefore, necessary to have neat and clutter-free merchandise. As the space allocated to a retailer is very limited, the product selection has to be done with utmost care in order to maximize visibility and revenue. Streamlining the product mix optimises the consumer’s limited time to browse, select and purchase a product of his choice. The key to the merchandising mix is to keep up with the global travel retail trends and also the trends in the domestic market. “The ‘Crystal Forest’ is a multi-sensory experience, which gives visitors and customers the chance to immerse themselves in the seductive brilliance and infinite depth of crystal,” says Sukanya Dutta Roy, Director, Swarovski Consumer Goods Business, India. Since many brands are fashion based, the merchandise mix has to be decided at least a year in advance so that brands are at par with global retail stores at airports and with key city stores in terms of availability of the merchandise. “Our best selling styles and core styles are generally displayed in the first half of the store and we have started creating colour zones that help to break the customers’ view and create little zones of interest. Small accessories are displayed in leather trays, which allow a customer to browse and hand pick,” Kapur adds.

Store positioning

The retail space available at airports is always in short supply. To make matters worse, the process of securing space involves complicated and time-consuming processes, such as tendering and negotiations with the airport authorities or private operators. Airport retail, therefore, needs advance planning and a focused business development team. “Gitanjali has retail outlets at various airports in the country, such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Calicut, Bhopal, Indore and Lucknow. The format ranges from a multi-brand store at Hyderabad, a shop-in-shop at Bangalore and an exclusive brand outlet for Gili at Mumbai’s domestic airport,” informs Vira.

All brands are performing better than the initial estimations, and indications are towards continued upswing, which bodes well for any upcoming retail projects in the airports.