London Heathrow Airport is planning to launch a dedicated Reserve & Collect inline store at Terminal 2 in the third quarter of this year, TRBusiness can report.

The 106sq m unit, which will occupy the vacant site of a former Boots shop after WHSmith/Well Pharmacy opened a hybrid shop in another area, will feature a fitting room.

Currently, travellers can avail of Heathrow’s free Reserve and Collect service across the terminals by pre-ordering products from most shops – including World Duty Free – with payment on arrival to the airport at the store where the reservation was made.

Purchases made in departures can also be left by the passenger for collection on return.

“When you marry click and collect with collect on return, you can pickup an item and almost immediately give it back to us, so you don’t need to take it with you,” explained Fraser Brown, Retail Director at Heathrow. “That also allows us to deal with bulkier items as well.”

Lagardère’s Discover London is live

Collect on Return is now more simplified for passengers, with the process no longer subject to VAT-free declarations on export products after the government abolished airside tax free sales.

In related news, Lagardère Travel Retail opened a branch of its ‘Discover London’ concept in the departure lounge in May.

Heathrow were advertising for jobs at the store as part of a recruitment drive earlier this year.

Passengers can avail of a wide range of fashion, gifting, food & wine and souvenir products from companies such as Barbour, Radley, Whittard of Chelsea, and more.

Heathrow confirms it is also in discussion with a number of brands to test a widened assortment of online-only labels across the categories, such as high street fashion and homeware, with a plan to go live with two brands in due course.

In the luxury segment, LHR already works with Aspinal of London on a trial basis at Terminal 5.

For more on Heathrow’s retail developments, read the TRBusiness June/July e-zine.