Dufry has told TRBusiness that the next New Generation Store will open at Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport (Terminal A Departures) where the company already has a sizeable retail footprint. In fact, Dufry operates stores at all of the airports in Buenos Aires.

 

Dufry has now opened five New Generation Stores, which include those at Madrid, Melbourne, Cancun and Zurich airports in addition to the most recent opening at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3.

 

Fred Creighton, Dufry Divisional CEO of UK and Central Europe confirmed to TRBusiness last week that the original concept – first discussed around nearly two years ago – called for six New Generation Stores around the world.

 

“The original vision was to have six New Generation stores,” he told TRBusiness. “We’ll take a lot of learnings from this [the WDF NGS at Heathrow T3] and even at this point in time, there are things here that work and things that don’t.

 

DOUBLE-DIGIT SALES GROWTH

“But the good news is that we’ve done one here in the UK and we’ve learned from it. We’ve done the same in Mexico, Australia, so each one is slightly different and we’re learning different things from each one.”

 

 

However, Creighton believes that the new T3 store has already been a tremendous success as the store posted a double-digit sales increase once completely refurbished, versus the same period in the prior year.

 

“By department it was varied as each phase finished, but now overall we’re up double-digits in sales,” he said.

 

 

As previously reported by TRBusiness, the new store has taken a holistic approach to digital technology, with new signage adorning all areas of the stores, right from the entrance all the way through to the till points.

 

“With the introduction of 167 linear metres of LED screens in addition to gondola screens and digital ‘echoes’, TRBusiness asked Creighton if there is a danger of bombarding the customer with too much information.

 

“Yes…it’s certainly near that threshold, but we’ve worked very, very hard on getting the balance right. We have spent a long time looking at what the optimum time is for those messages to remain on the screen.

 

COMMUNICATION OVERLOAD?

“This is a main walkway through the terminal so therefore we had to make absolutely sure it was not too distracting…we don’t want passengers falling over. It seems to be working, there’s a lot that we’re going to learn, because every time you do these things you’ve got to learn more and move the concept on.

 

“We develop stores and we trial new things. If the new things work, we add them to everywhere, if they don’t work, we stop them. The great thing about digital is it allows you that flexibility.”

 

Indeed Katie Floyd, Dufry Senior Manager for Contentainment told TRBusiness that the whole ethos behind the digital focus was to use “digital as an enabler for a better shopping experience for a customer, rather than just creating technology for its own sake”.

 

DIRECTING FOOTFALL

“There’s 167 linear metres of LED screens, stretch portrait screens as well as digital ‘echoes’ which punctuate the walkway and we use these to convey wayfinding messages, retail promotions and also to drive footfall into specific areas of the store for sampling opportunities, for example,” she said.

 

The screens display a combination of branded messages, Dufry content – such as adverts for its Red loyalty program – and an animated London skyline, to help convey a sense of place.

 

“Promotional content is targeting specific nationality groups depending on the time of day that they are travelling,” adds Floyd.

 

“[Messaging can be seen at] the high level, eye level and buy level as well as at various stages [platforms], including one for beauty, food, digital wearables and a VIP stage showcasing a particular brand.”

 

As the terminal primarily serves passengers from Britain the US and China, the messages are translated from English into Mandarin at specific times of day.