Lacoste has entered the Myanmar travel retail market with the opening of a store at Yangon Airport.
The 100sq m store, located in the airport’s new Terminal 2, features Lacoste’s latest concept design. The brand said the store aims to offer a premium shopping experience to local and international travellers.
Lacoste Asia Pacific Travel Retail Director Erin Lillis-Arrowsmith said: “We are very excited to break into this new market with this new standalone boutique in Yangon Airport. SMI [Singapore Myanmar Investco Ltd] has put together a great brand line-up and we’re looking forward to a great partnership.”
The Moodie Davitt Report recently caught up with Lacoste CEO Asia Pacific and Global Travel Retail Jean-Louis Delamarre, who joined the company two years ago, to find out about the brand’s next phase of growth.
“We have a huge network of stores around the world, over 190, and in my first year at the company we condensed the number of stores and massively improved the quality. Better doors, better locations and fewer at the beginning,” explained Delamarre.
“Results are great so we’re starting to move from ‘fewer, bigger, better’ to ‘bigger and better’ because we are investing more. The growth we are enjoying this year is ahead of my expectations so that means the strategy is working well.”
Lacoste’s strongest markets in travel retail are Asia and Europe. “Things out of our control like terrorist attacks are hurting the travel retail business big time but for us Asia is doing well,” noted Delamarre. “The partners we have, airports and retailers, are seeing that the Lacoste brand is becoming hotter and hotter.
“In 2016 we are focusing on our core markets of Asia and Europe, together the two make up 85% of our business. North America and Latin America are not a big priority for us at this stage.”
In Europe, Delamarre said that France is the number one priority for Lacoste this year, with the brand also expanding rapidly in the UK. “The store we recently opened at London Heathrow Terminal 4 has started very nicely so I think there will be more opportunities there. The UK will also be a big priority for us this year.”
“Travel retail is super-important in terms of branding,” said Delamarre. “The money we spend on media in the channel is disproportionate compared to the business. We over invest because we believe it’s really the window to the world for our brand.
“In terms of contribution to the group it is still relatively limited but it’s one of the fastest growing businesses we have. Travel retail is an engine of growth.”
E-commerce, already a significant proportion of Lacoste’s business in the domestic channel, will be a core focus going forwards in travel retail as well. “We are already doing a big chunk of travel retail business online in Korea and Thailand,” revealed Delamarre.
“More and more, consumers will have and seize the opportunity of selecting and shopping online from home before they travel, and pick-up their purchase at the airport. This is not a trend we can neglect.”
Another one of Delamarre’s goals is using travel retail to connect the consumer from home to their final destination. “I’m looking at how you can connect the consumer from home to home. Besides travel retail, I look after the China domestic market and we need to think about how to capture the Chinese abroad. How do we make sure the customer experience is seamless, how do we reward them and capture them back in China.
“The idea would be to connect the brand and customers at all touch points in their shopping journey: when they browse for their trip, when they book online, when they reach the airport at the destination country and back home. A full Customer Relationship Management (CRM) experience.”
