DENMARK. Gebr. Heinemann has unveiled a spectacular first of its kind ‘Experience Space’ within its main duty free store at Copenhagen Airport.
Centring around the overarching theme of ‘fluid perspectives’, the space allows visitors to engage with ‘lift and learn’ technology, interactive digital screens and a digital floor as well as immersive visual and sound elements.
“In order for us to create unforgettable experiences… we have a wider purpose, creating spaces with impact and a core KPI for us is basically the experience itself” – Gebr. Heinemann Director Sales Experience & Excellence Sören Borch
The Moodie Davitt Report has been on location today at the Danish travel hub to see the space at first hand and speak with key stakeholders, as the German travel retailer continues to deliver on its stated mission of “turning travel time into valuable time”. This article builds on our earlier story here.
Stepping onto the floor of the experience space, travellers see the water move beneath them. One wave of the hand and the water changes direction on the multiple digital screens surrounding them.
When visitors lift the model of a water drop, which are presented throughout the space, the screens display details on the important role that water plays for Denmark with its 8,750km coastline. The soothing sound of flowing water can be heard around the space, one of several elements which offer the passenger a multi-sensory, interactive and engaging journey.
Five brands – Narciso Rodriguez, Talisker Wilder Seas, Absolut vodka and two Danish sunglasses labels MessyWeekend and James Ay – are presented within the new area, showcasing their connection to water and the environment. Through the lift and learn technology visitors can gain a deeper knowledge and a connection to the brands and their products.
For example, a £3 donation from every sold bottle of Talisker Wilder Seas single malt Scotch whisky is given to charities which fund ocean protection initiatives. Another is that James Ay eyewear is made from Mazzucchelli M49, a material of which 90% can be converted to natural gases and the remainder converting into water and biomass.
Narciso Rodriguez is promoting its new All of Me women’s fragrance, which features notes of rose. As part of the brand immersion, visitors are invited to taste a drink which features flavour extracted from roses.
The brands that are presented in the space will be switched regularly, with each set of brands getting a three-month minimum run, Gebr. Heinemann noted.
Gebr. Heinemann Copenhagen Managing Director Katrin Bamler said: “We are very happy to present this amazing new concept to the travellers. I have never seen anything like it, and I think that it offers the perfect mix of content, excitement and shopping opportunity.
“We share a longstanding and very trustful partnership with Copenhagen Airport and are delighted that they embarked on this new adventure with us.”
Copenhagen Airports Head of Sales & Ecommerce Åsa Söderberg said: “At Copenhagen Airport, we always strive to give our passengers an extraordinary experience. The new experience space provides new forms of interaction and inspiration between brands and customers and we are pleased Gebr. Heinemann chose Copenhagen Airport for the launch of the new concept.
“The area will focus on brands that can deliver an extraordinary experience and gives smaller local Danish brands the opportunity to reach a wider audience. Our experience shows that unique experiences and good service are closely linked with increased sales and something that passengers today expect from traditional retail.”
Gebr. Heinemann Director Sales Experience & Excellence Sören Borch commented: “We promise the travellers unforgettable experiences as a part of our mission statement to turn travel time into valuable time.
“Our new experience space is another proof point of how we bring our promises to the shop floor – in this case with an interactive and inspiring consumer experience that delivers a unique shopping proposition.
“It is multi-dimensional, agile and programmed to continuously reinvent itself to stay in touch with changing consumer expectations. After the launch in Copenhagen, there is still more to come in other locations.”
Borch spoke at length to The Moodie Davitt Report at today’s launch, offering insights into the Heinemann retail innovation strategy. “This pilot experience space has been quite an investment and I think we have really created a space with impact here,” he said.
“We are already evaluating how things are working here so that we make any adjustments before introducing it into more Heinemann retail spaces. We are currently looking into two more locations in the next year within our European airport estate. We can scale it up and down depending on the spaces that are available.”
On return on investment for the Copenhagen experience space, he emphasised wider parameters than simply sales per square metre. He said: “In order for us to create unforgettable experiences, which is one of our key value propositions, we will maybe not have the same sales per square metre efficiency as in other parts of the store. But we have a wider purpose, creating spaces with impact and a core KPI for us is basically the experience itself.”
Borch, whose team is responsible for store design and all customer experience elements across the Heinemann estate, continued: “A lot of it is about making people stop who may have already seen the wider assortment in the store to come in again or spend more time here, helping the space to increase sales penetration across the whole store.”
“Experience is now a very important KPI for us – customers will learn something about the theme, in this case the topic of water, and they will discover the brands being showcased. We want them to feel it is was fun to walk around, have great interaction with the Brand Ambassadors, appreciate the visual set-up and so on – something that is creating an impact independent of the sales. Sales are important but they are not everything in this case.”
Asked about the role retail innovation is now playing in winning airport duty free contracts, Borch added: “Going through the pandemic we knew that we needed to do more in order to excite passengers to make them stop and really take notice of retail. Competition [in duty free retail] is fierce and we want to convince new partners that besides being a good logistics company we are also an excellent retailer that puts innovation at the heart of what it does.”
On the encouragement of new and, particularly, local brands into Heinemann duty free spaces, Borch noted the retailer is working very hard on future category development.
He said: “We are addressing new target groups, especially the younger generation. In Düsseldorf Airport [see our recent on location report here], for example, we found a very good solution with the airport to lower the barrier for new brands to enter travel retail. On the one hand we need to protect our whole business set-up, the high margins needed, and cover the high concession fees.
“So of course we continue to work a lot with the established brands and have high expectations on what they should deliver. At the same time, we also want to catch the attention of the new generation so we need to find different set-ups in order to cater for up and coming brands, the smaller brands, the start-ups.
“So we are now working on ways that at least for a limited time, we can give a stage to new and upcoming brands so they can find out what travel retail could do for them. And working with local brands is not only vital from a sustainability perspective, but also to ensure that customers which are departing from an airport have that Sense of Place in the assortment available to them.”
Borch noted that the recently extended duty free contract at Copenhagen Airport will see the 2,600sq m main duty free store expanded to 4,000sq m by 2027, an increase of more than +50%. This he said, will allow much more room for further innovation and the ability to devote space to smaller and local brands, as well as the big name labels. Construction will begin in 2025. 
