Enhanced experience: ShopGallery introduces Virtual Store app concept in Argentina

ARGENTINA. Travel retailer ShopGallery is rolling out a new ‘Virtual Store’ concept this year as it seeks to enhance the customer shopping experience.

The Argentina-based company is a business unit of Corporación América, and operates duty free and duty paid stores in many Argentinean airports. It also has a store inside the Sheraton Mendoza hotel.

Welcoming environment: ShopGallery’s store at Jorge Newbery International Airport in Buenos Aires

ShopGallery combines international and local brands across several travel retail categories. It launched a number of brands exclusively in the Argentinean market last year, such as Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic and Kipling. The retailer says it is planning more launches this year.

A new store, ShopGallery Iguazú, is scheduled to open at Cataratas del Iguazú International Airport in mid-2018. The small convenience shop is being created for tourists departing Iguazú who are travelling to other tourist zones in Argentina.

Safe storage: Customers can pick up purchased items from innovative e-lockers

ShopGallery’s new ‘Virtual Store’ concept will be rolled out in ten Argentinean airports this year. Departing passengers going to Jorge Newbery International will be able to buy any of ShopGallery’s products via a new app being launched next month, and collect them from recently-installed e-lockers at the airport in Buenos Aires.

Once a product is selected on the app, travellers can use their mobile phone to scan the item’s QR code using free Wi-Fi. Customers then pay by completing credit card and required information such as their flight number. The product will then be waiting for them in an e-locker at Jorge Newbery International, Argentina’s largest airport in terms of traffic.

Innovation and expansion: ShopGallery launched a number of brands exclusively in the Argentinean market in 2017, including Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic

One of the main aims is to reach new clients in airports where the company doesn’t operate, ShopGallery said. The virtual stores will also feature in airports where it does have a presence, so that passengers who may not have had the opportunity to pass through the real ShopGallery store can still make purchases in the boarding area.

Passengers departing Jorge Newbery International can also use the e-lockers by making purchases and storing them for pick-up when they return. The e-lockers can be easily accessed by scanning a QR code or a barcode.

The app will also enable Aerolineas Argentinas passengers to make inflight purchases. Like the Amazon Go concept which allows consumers to shop without having to use a checkout, travellers can scan the barcodes of the products in-store, pay for them, and leave, ShopGallery said.

As well as Jorge Newbery International (above), ShopGallery operates stores at Ingeniero Aeronáutico Ambrosio L.V. Taravella International (Cordoba), El Plumerillo International (Mendoza), San Carlos de Bariloche and Martín Miguel de Güemes International (Salta) airports plus the Sheraton Mendoza hotel (all pictured below)

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