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Moodie Davitt Report, an institute providing market intelligence to the duty-free retail industry, released a report on Wednesday, June 2nd of 2021 regarding Louis Vuitton and its willingness to change dynamics.
It announced that the famous French haute-couture house was withdrawing from the city centres of several Asian countries. China, Hong Kong and South Korea are the main countries affected by this decision. However, Louis Vuitton’s withdrawal from city centres follows a shift in the brand’s focus to concentrate its business solely in airports rankhaya.com. Fully committed to travel retail, which means “retailing in places of transport” , the brand will continue this activity, but will concentrate it in Asian airport spaces.
“We are constantly reviewing our retail network and are in discussion with all travel retail operators on how best we can optimise the recovery of the travel retail market” , a Louis Vuitton spokesperson told the Moodie Davitt report.
The decision affects duty-free shops in downtown Hong Kong as well as four duty-free shops in downtown Seoul, two in Jeju and one in Busan, both in Korea.
Future Louis Vuitton shops in Asian airports
Louis Vuitton plans to open six airport shops in China by the end of 2022, in addition to the one opened in the domestic area of Beijing Daxing International Airport in 2019. In Hong Kong, the brand also plans to open a duplex shop in its international airport. Finally, while the company already has a shop at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, it hopes to open a second store at Incheon T2 by 2023.
This reinforcement of the brand’s presence in Asian airports is therefore quite well thought out and justified. Indeed, the Asian market, and particularly the Chinese, is one of the most fervent towards the luxury sector. Having overtaken US demand by 2020, China is expected to account for over 60% of global luxury spending. Retail sales at China’s national airports are growing rapidly, with airports playing a key role in showcasing luxury brands, led by Louis Vuitton.
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Featured photo : © Louis Vuitton
