POLAND. On 1 May LS travel retail opened three new Aelia Duty Free stores in the new terminal one at Warsaw’s Frédéric Chopin Airport. The so-called “next-generation” stores comprise 800sq m dedicated to fragrances and cosmetics, and 500sq m for liquor, tobacco, fine food and confectionery. There is also a multi-category arrivals store.
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The new Aelia Duty Free stores opened in Warsaw on 1 May |
The openings follow on from the October 2014 debut of the new Aelia concept in France, at the MP2 terminal at Marseille. The next wave will be rolled out at Nice Airport, at the end of September. Luton Airport will follow in November.
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800sq m is dedicated to beauty and 500sq m to liquor, tobacco, find food & confectionery |
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The Chopin area features a special piano design, a reference to the famous composer |
The stores incorporate new digital features, notably a website (www.aeliadutyfree.pl) and in-store tablets for each sales person. Passengers at Warsaw will be able to pre-order online their favourite beauty products and collect them in-store before their flight.
The next-generation Aelia Duty Free concept is built on four strategic pillars:
The Art of the Gift: Most passengers enter a travel retail store with the idea of buying a gift, the retailer maintains. Aelia Duty Free capitalises on this via certain service signatures, gift wrapping, product merchandising and selection.
Facilitation: Duty free shopping needs to be made easier, LS travel retail believes, by conveying a better understanding of custom allowances, price benefits versus the High Street and product information. This is made possible thanks to a BeSpoke app on the in-store iPads.
Care: Aelia’s ISO certified OSCAR training programme has been used to draw up a new service protocol for the Aelia Duty Free next generation concept, in partnership with Luxury Attitude, a consulting group that specialises in creating service signatures, which in turn guides sales staff in the way to address travellers.
Here and Nowhere else: In order to be memorable, the experience at Aelia Duty Free has to be unique. Each location has a dedicated space highlighting the iconic features, products and Sense of Place of the surrounding area.
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Service and the art of the gift are key themes for the new retail concepts |
For Warsaw, the concept delivers this fourth element through two experiential zones created in partnership with two key local brands: Chopin & Zubrowska. The Chopin area features a special design which includes a piano, a reference to the famous composer Frédéric Chopin. Zubrowska has created a special Białowieża Forest Bison Grass Zone.
