Early results at the new DFA/Luxottica Punta Cana Airport sunglasses boutique have been ‘extremely positive’.

Luxottica Group has joined forces with Duty Free Americas (DFA) to open the latter’s inaugural standalone sunglasses boutique at Punta Cana International Airport Terminal A.

The ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘bespoke’ 100sqm concept has been engineered around Luxottica Group’s sunglass management approach, with an optimised product assortment and heightened shopper engagement zones.

Opened in Q1 in line with a significant refurbishment of DFA’s retail footprint at the airport, the multi-brand outlet houses 23 brands, a shop-in-shop for household names Ray-Ban and Oakley and space for more than 1,300 skus.

Leon Falic, President of DFA stated: “Our vision was to create the ‘ideal sunglasses store’, using all of Luxottica’s know-how and best practices and the power of the Ray-Ban brand to take the category to new heights. Early results have been extremely positive, and we look forward to driving continued growth in this vibrant and dynamic product category.”

DEDICATED ZONES

Visitors to the store will be greeted by a highly visible video wall at the entrance, while an adjacent promotional space encourages passengers to try out new products.

Inside, the premium look and feel of the store comes into its own, with a dedicated ‘Polarized zone’ and ‘Kids zone’ joining a style bar where travellers can enjoy fittings and advice from a team of four dedicated sunglass specialists.

The 100sq m multi-brand boutique concept boasts a Polarized zone, Kids zone and style bar.

Alessandro Pozzi, Global Channels Director at Luxottica added: “This stunning new store at Punta Cana Airport delivers a first-class retail space and big step forward in the shopping experience.

“As a major destination for international holidaymakers and with major investment in the airport’s infrastructure, Punta Cana has huge potential for sunglasses sales and we hope to maximise that potential with this initiative. Based on the most recent performance, this new store is trending towards becoming DFA Group’s best-performing space for our category.”

The Dominican Republic hub and second busiest airport in the Caribbean handled over 7.3m passengers in 2017.

Operator Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este is aiming to lift passenger capacity at the Caribbean’s busiest and fastest growing airport to 10m by 2020.