Paris-headquartered travel retailer Lagardère Travel Retail has struck an exclusive partnership with RaiseLab to pursue innovation projects.

RaiseLab is a joint venture between Raise and Schoolab that according to its website helps to foster collaborations between large companies and startups to create economic and societal value.

The Paris company’s alliance with the multi-location travel retailer is designed to accelerate innovation and organisational agility.

The collaboration will unfold in two distinctive phases, according to Lagardère Travel Retail.

In phase one, a series of “pioneering proof of concepts” spanning flow management, AI translation corner, dynamic screens and advanced vending services will take place across Lagardère Travel Retail’s travel essentials network in France.

Digital innovation ahead of Olympics

Lagardère Travel Retail says the knowledge and insights it gleans from the initial pilot phase will prove instructive in defining a roadmap for implementing further innovation across its estate for the benefit of its customers.

Claire Duflos, VP Marketing Lagardère Travel Retail, said: “We believe that by reinforcing and accelerating our innovation initiatives through the strategic partnership with RaiseLab, we can elevate the travel retail shopping experience. Our goal is not only to meet the evolving needs of our landlords and travellers but to exceed expectations by constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in travel retail innovation.”

Lagardère Travel Retail says its ability to continually redefine and elevate the travel experience can be seen in the introduction of three automated stores last year.

Paul Jeannest, CEO of RaiseLab, commented: “We at RaiseLab are thrilled to announce our recent partnership with Lagardère Travel Retail to spearhead the framing, experimentation, and deployment of five cutting-edge retail innovation projects.

“These experiments will be conducted first within their French travel essentials network, aligning with Lagardère Travel Retail’s strategic push to accelerate digital innovation projects ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games and throughout 2024.

“Our role as innovative alliance builders is to guide the group through this experimentation journey, ensuring the successful rollout of projects across multiple countries and the entire network. We are very excited to embark on this collaborative venture with Lagardère Travel Retail’s innovation teams and are appreciative of the confidence they’ve placed in us.”