Heathrow to unveil T4 luxury offer in early 2017
Luxury stores such as Harrods, Burberry and Cartier are being redeveloped along with five new luxury brands to be introduced, two of which will be new to the airport.
The new retail redevelopment is on the back of strong commercial figures reported in the first half of 2016, where the airport saw a 7.7% year-on-year retail revenue increase to £280m ($369m).
London Heathrow airport Retail and Digital director Chris Annetts, who moved from his previous role as Commercial Passenger Services director just last month, said Heathrow was “delighted” with its latest set of results and aimed at enhancing its digital services for its passengers.
“The biggest opportunities and challenges for Heathrow we believe are in exploring and creating an enhanced, exciting and attractive digital offer to our consumers. Heathrow has all the hallmarks of a brand which could really excel with a strong digital proposition. Development of our online, interactive and e-commerce assets will be key to us maintaining our strong retail performance,” he said.
“We have already made great strides in this space with our reserve and collect site, our award-winning social media channels and the recent launch of Weibo, but there is much more we can do to remain relevant to our passengers.”
Heathrow’s commercial performance in H1 2016 was helped by the refurbishment project at T5, which marked the completion of a three year £40m ($52.7m) programme to bring together globally renowned luxury fashion and accessories brands at the terminal. Chanel, which opened its doors last December, completed the line-up of 23 popular luxury names featuring the likes of Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry, Cartier and Rolex. Annetts added the introduction of the 23 luxury and fashion each showed strong results over the period.
Annetts added that the UK as well as Middle East, China and Russia shoppers were among its strongest shopping demographic during the period, with categories such as luxury leather goods, jewellery, fragrance and technology proving popular. He also revealed the airport’s commercial plans for the future will be to understand its consumers’ interest better and to work with its brands.
“Our future commercial strategy sits within our corporate vision to provide the world’s best airport service. We will achieve this by listening to our customers, responding to their needs and working with our brand partners to continue to provide an award-winning eating and shopping experience for passengers flying through Heathrow,” concluded Annetts
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