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World Duty Free’s walk-through store in Heathrow T3 has been reworked to feature a more efficient customer flow |
UK. World Duty Free Group yesterday celebrated the completion of the extensive refurbishment of its main duty free stores at London Heathrow Terminals 3 and 4.
An investment of more than £4 million has been made in the main tax and duty free stores and three specialist stores in T3, to tie in with the airport operator’s own redevelopment of its airside retail space.
The main 27,000sq ft walk-through World Duty Free store in T3 has been completely revamped with a revised customer flow through the retail space. This has not only made navigation through the store easier and improved sight lines throughout, it has also removed a through-route from the layout, which was ultimately losing the retailer potential customers, the company said.
“While T3 was already recognised as walk-through store, the reality was it featured an escape route, which saw as many as 30-40% of passengers cutting through the old layout store rather than moving through the retail offer,” said World Duty Free Group Retail Operations Director Fred Creighton.
The main entrance to the store now houses the liquor category area, featuring a new tasting bar area to the left, which allows the retailer’s brand partners to implement in-store theatre and product sampling.
The bar has been repositioned from its previously hard-to-find location in the centre of the store – a move which has rejuvenated the concept, noted Creighton.
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The reworking of sight lines allied to the increase in ceiling height has generated a more open feel |
The specialist wine concept, Wine Collection – Rare & Vintage, has been incorporated within the liquor area. It represents the second execution of this specialist wine feature, the first being at Heathrow T5. The positioning of the Wine Collection at the entrance has helped drive sales across the range of premium and rare wines, with World Duty Free Group Regional Manager Peter Cunningham confirming that the group has enjoyed category growth of +40% as a result.
“The reworking of sight lines – not just in liquor, but across the entire store – allied to the increase in ceiling height has generated an altogether more open feel, which encourages casual browsing and increases dwell time,” said Cunningham.
The walk-through route brings passengers next to the reworked luxury area, featuring installations from premium watch brands including Dior and Rado as well as Pandora and Swarovski in the jewellery category. The sunglasses zone has been expanded, with major executions devoted to Oakley and Ray-Ban – both of which have resulted in double-digit growth, Cunningham confirmed.
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The showpiece of the store is the 10,600sq ft beauty hall, which houses over 100 brands and sells an average of 16,150 bottles of perfume and about 2,000 lipsticks and glosses each week. It features impressive customisations from Estée Lauder, Christian Dior and Yves St Laurent as well as hosting brands new to T3, such as Kiehl’s, Elie Saab, Tom Ford and Burberry Beauty.
Notably, an exclusive Chanel Espace concept has been integrated into the beauty area. It is only the second time the concept has been integrated into a World Duty Free store, the other being at Birmingham Airport. The 800sq ft space features the Chanel Beauté selection, the Exclusifs fragrance range and a perfume profile bar, along with luxury consultation areas.
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The Contentainment wall allows the retailer to stage experiential in-store theatre executions with brand partners |
A 24-screen Contentainment wall and pillar with adjacent event spaces have been integrated into the main store, allowing the company to stage experiential in-store theatre executions with brand partners using the technology to showcase products and their own bespoke digital content.
Confectionery forms the final category within the new store layout, and features strong customisations from brands such as Fortnum & Mason, Godiva and Butlers. The centralised layout of the confectionery area allows the category an enormous amount of retail space, resulting in one of the more impressive confectionery areas The Moodie Report has seen to date.
The passenger profile of the terminal is well reflected throughout the category, with range extensions for the Chinese market particularly in evidence.
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The 10,600sq ft beauty hall features impressive customisations from Estée Lauder, Clarins, Crème de la Mer and Yves Saint Laurent as well as hosting brands new to T3, such as Kiehl’s, Elie Saab, Tom Ford and Burberry Beauty |
World Duty Free Group has now introduced the China Union Pay card across T3, an initiative that has been very well received by Chinese passengers.
“The system has allowed them much greater freedom to spend on premium and higher price point products, and has dramatically increased overall spend in categories such as liquor and luxury goods,” observed Cunningham.
“Over the past 14 months we have been involved in an extensive programme of refurbishment of our retail spaces in the Heathrow estate,” said World Duty Free Group Chief Executive José María Palencia. “We have worked in close collaboration with our airport partners at Heathrow to ensure we created tailored retail solutions, which complemented everything that they were doing to enhance their retail offers.
“As well as our refurbishment of Terminal 3, last summer we completed the redevelopment of our main World Duty Free store in Terminal 4. We were able to enlarge the beauty offer, extend the luxury category and install a variety of new store features and concepts.”
Palencia added: “We are always striving to be innovative and move travel retail onto the next level, offering our airport partners – and our customers – the very best airport shopping experience. Within the Heathrow terminals, we have been able to offer the full range of retail concepts we have and provide the premium store environments within which our brand partners can showcase their products to best effect.”
The World Duty Free store in T4 has been completely extended as part of a £2.5 million refurbishment programme. The retailer has introduced new high-gloss tiled walkways which seamlessly guide the passenger through store category by category.
World Duty Free Regional Manager Shaw Rodrigues highlighted the drawing together of the store into a cohesive shopping space as an important step in driving revenue growth. The site was previously split between The Nuance Group and Alpha/WDF, before being brought together under the World Duty Free banner.
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The World Duty Free store in Terminal 4 has been completely extended as part of a £2.5 million refurbishment programme |
Rodrigues pinpointed a target of £65 million in sales from the revamped store, with initiatives aimed at the terminal’s passenger profile contributing to the projected growth.
“Ramadan, Diwali, Chinese New Year and Christmas are very important periods for us and as such we make a concerted effort to mirror that in the types of promotions and products we have on offer,” Rodrigues said.
Heathrow Retail Concessions Director Muriel Zingraff concluded: “We are really excited by the improvements that World Duty Free has made to its Terminal 3 and Terminal 4 stores and we are delighted that they are able to bring something a bit different to the airport.
“We’ve been working hard this last year on improving facilities in Terminal 3 and this is just one of the many departure lounge developments that will improve the experience that Terminal 3 provides.”
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