Latest / The Retail Podcast / APAC Luxury Pulse: Galeries Lafayette enters India, Chinese F&B hits Singapore, Porsche Q3 slows

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APAC Luxury Pulse: Galeries Lafayette enters India, Chinese F&B hits Singapore, Porsche Q3 slows · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello there. My name is Reef Quail, Managing
• 0:02
  Director of NRF AIPAC, and this is Five Things Friday, AIPAC
• 0:06
  Edition. Hello.
• 0:19
  Hello Alex, how are you? Yeah, very good.
• 0:22
  Thank you. I'm still disappointed.
• 0:23
  I can't believe it. I believe it.
• 0:26
  OK, Reef is disappointed about last week's show not being live
• 0:29
  yet. We've had a we've had a big
• 0:31
  debate. Maybe you let us know.
• 0:32
  Should we? Shouldn't we?
• 0:34
  Yes. Yeah, so that plays our viewers.
• 0:36
  Like, I want to come across as my natural self.
• 0:38
  And I'd been on a camping trip with my son for two weeks, and I
• 0:41
  might have grown a rather lusty beard with a fair bit of growth
• 0:44
  on my neck. I've trimmed it down this week.
• 0:46
  So I feel like Alex now. Alex my my team, my manager,
• 0:49
  because I'm now more presentable for the audiences your.
• 0:52
  Media guys. My media, my media advisor and
• 0:56
  has advised people we probably should put the other episode to
• 0:58
  air, but I thought, oh, you know, show a bit of personality,
• 1:01
  but no, OK, so we're shielding you from that, from the massive.
• 1:05
  I might put it out as just an audio version.
• 1:08
  We'll put it out. I've always said I had a face
• 1:11
  for radio. Exactly.
• 1:13
  Many people have said I've got a fantastic face for maybe you
• 1:17
  shouldn't let that one go. Let's.
• 1:19
  Moving on very quickly, trying to keep to our 50 minutes
• 1:22
  format. Phases for radio?
• 1:24
  We should talk about you in first.
• 1:27
  We gonna have a guest next week, are we?
• 1:28
  Oh my God, yes we are. And you might be just recording
• 1:31
  with her alone, by the way, because it's like 2:00 in the
• 1:34
  morning for me, so. That might be a lot of
• 1:37
  responsibility. Yeah, everything.
• 1:40
  Set up it's like this, you just go in and record.
• 1:42
  But anyway, let's yeah, you and you want to do a quick.
• 1:46
  So Ewan Ewan is the managing director of Aeon 360.
• 1:50
  It's a newly developed digital offering for Aeon across her and
• 1:53
  she's based in Malaysia. She was chief marketing officer
• 1:55
  for Aeon Malaysia. And now she's taken on this more
• 1:58
  senior data and digital role, which is exciting.
• 2:00
  She's an awesome lady. She's a lot smarter than you and
• 2:03
  I Alex, which will be good because it'll lift the tones and
• 2:07
  it's done out in the weird. We're gonna have someone who's
• 2:09
  gonna elevate our intellect now over a colour ago.
• 2:13
  We'll we'll we'll be able to draft off that.
• 2:16
  And so she's been joining us. Actually, she's on the Advisory
• 2:18
  Board for NRFA pack and has been for the last couple of years and
• 2:20
  she's been a like she a wonderful spokesperson for
• 2:23
  retail. She has her own not-for-profit
• 2:26
  as well. And she's she's got some really
• 2:28
  amazing things to talk about. Obviously journeys and rights of
• 2:31
  women, particularly in Islamic countries, obviously.
• 2:33
  So she's an amazing woman. Not like like a bit of a crush
• 2:36
  on her in terms of she's just such an awesome person to have
• 2:39
  as part of NF APEC, but also she's agreed to be part of this,
• 2:42
  to have a go at this. Protecting some sort of pot or
• 2:44
  something to come flying towards your head.
• 2:49
  Not yet. Not yet anyway.
• 2:51
  Let's get into it, I'd say. OK, moving on my friend.
• 2:54
  We've been talking a lot about retail experiences over the
• 2:57
  previous weeks, and I wanted today to dive into a subset of
• 3:00
  that. And my 2:00 today will be
• 3:02
  manifestations of experience. And really what it comes to is
• 3:05
  Wellness and experience in retail experience, which can
• 3:09
  manifest in a whole bunch of different ways.
• 3:11
  And the one I'm going to talk about today is Lululemon.
• 3:15
  So Lululemon in Singapore is just taking it to a new level in
• 3:19
  terms of experience. They've got a they've got four
• 3:22
  stores in Singapore, they've got Changi Airport and they've got
• 3:24
  one at Marina Bay Sands. But their flagship store, their
• 3:27
  North Star store, Star Show store, North Star store, let's
• 3:32
  say that quickly, is in Orchard Road and it's 600 square metres
• 3:35
  of retail space. So it's a beautiful Lululemon
• 3:38
  store, right? But wrapping that store with 100
• 3:41
  extra 180 square metres is a yoga and Pilates studio.
• 3:45
  Wow. So what we're talking about,
• 3:47
  this isn't a this, this picture here, this is a part of the
• 3:50
  retail experience. So you shop at Lululemon and you
• 3:52
  go into a class, right? There's yoga studio.
• 3:55
  Keep coming through, mate. Yeah, there's Pilates and you
• 3:58
  can see this is in the entrance from within the store.
• 4:03
  It's beautifully designed, it's curves, it's inviting.
• 4:07
  You can see the lines of Singapore there in refitting
• 4:10
  room. Yes.
• 4:10
  So this is now on my will they allow?
• 4:12
  Is it? I presume it's unisex, right?
• 4:14
  Well, I hope so because I wanted to go and have a look at this
• 4:16
  too, because I'll be able to employ it all.
• 4:18
  Then this is this is only recent.
• 4:20
  So this is really cool. So you know, when you're
• 4:22
  thinking about Wellness, we're thinking about health and
• 4:25
  well-being. Come, come back.
• 4:26
  So you come back to that. So not only have they, not only
• 4:29
  have they got the design, you can say that they've got their
• 4:32
  ambassador for Lululemon actually teaching the classes.
• 4:36
  Oh wow. So that's that's pretty pretty.
• 4:38
  Let me look at her name Connor. So she's.
• 4:41
  Got it's pretty Cortana, yeah. Yeah, so she's actually teaching
• 4:44
  the classes and she's one of their ambassadors.
• 4:46
  She's out of Y Canada. And so we're really thinking
• 4:48
  about, you know, thinking about brands, rethinking physical
• 4:52
  retail, not just to feed transactional places, but a
• 4:54
  place it's neither home nor work, but somewhere in between.
• 4:57
  Love it, love. It a little bit spent time.
• 4:59
  I mean, you could effectively spend an hour and a half at
• 5:03
  Lululemon. Yeah, not.
• 5:04
  Look, I think it's. It's it's wild.
• 5:07
  Yeah. And it's a trend that will
• 5:09
  continue to grow. And I think maybe at the end of
• 5:11
  the show you've got another great example of a store that's
• 5:15
  not just for transaction, but. Yeah, but that.
• 5:17
  But this, this, this, this is it.
• 5:19
  This example extends the values of the brand into activity.
• 5:23
  You know, I'm saying the next example is really thinking about
• 5:27
  Wellness within the space. So hold that thought and I'll
• 5:30
  hand it back to you. This was this is this is about
• 5:33
  extending the brand into activity.
• 5:34
  Well, it's been a dynamic week for luxury in the region.
• 5:38
  And the the thing that always amazes me from a European
• 5:42
  perspective are these massive conglomerates that live in India
• 5:47
  that own so many different types of businesses.
• 5:50
  And as part of one of the many businesses and brands they own
• 5:54
  is fashion. And what we see is the first
• 5:57
  Indian luxury departments for Galleries Lafayette, which is
• 6:01
  officially in Mumbai. And it's the retailer's first
• 6:05
  step into this sort of fast growing luxury watch.
• 6:08
  Yeah, the growing luxury market, obviously chasing the
• 6:11
  aspirational spend in the region.
• 6:14
  And it takes it away just from, and you've seen this with
• 6:19
  departments, luxury department stores opening up across the
• 6:21
  world. They've gone away from, you
• 6:23
  know, just fashion, but into lifestyle, into art and into
• 6:27
  fine living. So it's that, you know, full
• 6:29
  circle luxury lifestyle living, which is is what the store is
• 6:33
  focused on more than 250 international brands, including
• 6:38
  the brands from from the holding company as well, Adita Brilla,
• 6:43
  who has a whole plethora of brands that they own and it
• 6:47
  brings it all in one roof and they're expanding.
• 6:51
  So it's not an experience, sorry, it's not an experimental
• 6:53
  store because it's the first store and they're expanding into
• 6:56
  Delhi next year as well. So one to watch as the it's.
• 7:02
  It's big. It's a big store though, isn't
• 7:04
  it? It sounds like a million.
• 7:05
  I don't. Have much square footage, but
• 7:07
  the fact they're doing art and all the elements of around it's,
• 7:11
  it's incredible, right? And that's right.
• 7:13
  Another story that you and I have discussed many, many times
• 7:16
  and I've always discussed this from Auk European perspective of
• 7:20
  Chinese brands expanding out into different regions.
• 7:25
  Chinese F&B brands have expanded into Singapore or are still
• 7:29
  expanding into Singapore at pace and and the reason for the
• 7:33
  energy of these brands moving into the region or the the
• 7:37
  stated energy. And this is a story in Reuters.
• 7:39
  So please go to Reuters for the full story.
• 7:42
  But you know, my 30 seconds on it is that these brands are
• 7:46
  looking for stable regulatory environment, stable consumption
• 7:51
  from spending from consumers and a transparent regulatory
• 7:55
  environment, which is showcases how Southeast Asian tourists
• 8:00
  flocking to Singapore are now gonna get, you know, if they
• 8:04
  want to get some fast food from Chinese fast food, the brands
• 8:08
  are there to meet that demand. And again, I think the signals
• 8:12
  that we are, we are well, far, far away from Chinese brands
• 8:17
  just being satisfied with domestic demand.
• 8:20
  It's happened in fast fashion. It's happening FFB.
• 8:23
  And I expect to see this to continue to grow and sing it.
• 8:28
  Yeah. So it got me.
• 8:29
  Singapore particularly, it's actually, it's happening all
• 8:32
  across different categories in, in Singapore with Chinese.
• 8:34
  One of the biggest challenges in Singapore retail as an aside, is
• 8:38
  that the Chinese retailers are coming in, setting up and paying
• 8:41
  overs on their rent a retail rent.
• 8:43
  So it's been pushing out a lot of the Singapore retailers who
• 8:47
  are struggling to be able to afford rent.
• 8:49
  So the Chinese have come in and, and are renting retail spaces
• 8:52
  and, and bidding the price of real estate up.
• 8:55
  Wow. So this is happening not only in
• 8:57
  food but happy and right across categories and Singapore
• 9:00
  retailers are struggling to match them because they're
• 9:02
  trying to hold their footprint and, and and the tide with
• 9:04
  others driving. I don't think it be just
• 9:07
  Singaporean retailers, I think it'll be global retailers when
• 9:10
  they're. Yeah, there's a bit of this, but
• 9:11
  I think that I think for me talking to Singapore, Singapore
• 9:16
  in retailers, it's, it's one of the challenge, the challenges is
• 9:19
  coming through the cost of doing business.
• 9:20
  And in most categories, we're seeing Chinese retailers coming
• 9:23
  in and paying overs for real estate.
• 9:25
  And so it's creating huge pressure.
• 9:27
  And I mean, it was very funny. I, I met with the board of the
• 9:30
  Singapore Retailer Association 3 or 4 years ago.
• 9:32
  Yeah. And they say they, they laugh
• 9:34
  and drag there in Singapore, they're in property.
• 9:36
  Retailers are in property. But in Malaysia, they're in
• 9:38
  retail because they've got a population, because Singapore's
• 9:40
  only 5 million people. Yes, Malaysia's 35.
• 9:44
  Well, it's a great testing ground, but I think what what's
• 9:47
  interesting is obviously we've got these stories of Chinese
• 9:49
  brands coming out of China, but then you look at, you know,
• 9:53
  staple of Automotive World, Porsche and luxury and they're
• 9:58
  reporting the first time global sales declined in the third
• 10:02
  quarter of 20% drop. And that 20% drop is in China,
• 10:07
  which is softening the demand and North America also, which
• 10:11
  basically shows how fragile high end automotive has become with
• 10:16
  the expansion of Chinese EV brands at such fantastic prices
• 10:23
  and. And I can.
• 10:24
  Yeah, sorry, go a bit. This is the search, but this is
• 10:26
  this is where we're seeing in tougher economic conditions,
• 10:29
  consumers search for value. Yeah.
• 10:31
  And, and I see, you know, for me, the Chinese vehicles are
• 10:36
  coming into markets and delivering a pretty good product
• 10:39
  at a sharp price point and creating value for the money
• 10:42
  dollar spent. And good example, you say we
• 10:44
  were. I was walking through a car park
• 10:46
  yesterday and I've got my. I have been looking at byd Utes
• 10:49
  in Australia. They're called the shark at the
• 10:51
  auto utes They're awesome. Every, every boy loves the Ute
• 10:54
  for camping. So that was my next trip.
• 10:56
  So, but I was talking to the guy because I, it was a brand new
• 10:58
  and I said, I asked the, the guy who had it, what do you think of
• 11:01
  it? And he said to me, yeah, for the
• 11:03
  price I paid, it's amazing. It was 50,000 Australians.
• 11:06
  He said the alternative was a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser and
• 11:09
  that was $98,000. Yeah.
• 11:12
  So it's half the price of a Japanese, like Toyota is a
• 11:15
  iconic brand in Australia. Yeah.
• 11:17
  So so they're going. I'm happy to.
• 11:21
  I'm happy to forego the Toyota brand because I'm going to say
• 11:24
  $50,000. I'm going to pay half the price
• 11:27
  for an equivalent product, which is also a hybrid.
• 11:29
  Yeah, it's incredible. Great.
• 11:31
  And finally, moving on to you reef.
• 11:33
  Yeah. So the last one is we're, we're
• 11:35
  we're back to experience in retail, but we're talking about
• 11:37
  Wellness, but we're going to talk about a different
• 11:39
  manifestation and then. You know what they sell is
• 11:42
  whenever I see an images like that is what does this store
• 11:45
  sell? Yeah, I know.
• 11:47
  And it's a it's a beautiful store.
• 11:49
  So if you've done a lot of time in international airports like
• 11:51
  you and I have, Alex will be familiar with this brand.
• 11:54
  Gentle Monster opened a concept store in September this year in
• 11:58
  in Seoul. It's an incredible store.
• 12:00
  So this is this is the house nowhere, right?
• 12:03
  It's launched in conjunction. It's a flat, it's an
• 12:06
  architectural flagship store. It's experimental retail in in
• 12:11
  its concept in conjunction with I combined, which is the parent
• 12:14
  company of gentle monster, right.
• 12:15
  This is unbelievable. It's 14 stories.
• 12:18
  You want to bring up some pictures, mate?
• 12:20
  So so this is this dog here. This is actually not a dog.
• 12:24
  It's actually it's a model. This is when you walk into the
• 12:27
  lobby of the store. Yeah right.
• 12:29
  So the store is more like an art gallery quite you.
• 12:33
  So you're they're treating their customers not so much as
• 12:36
  transactional customers, but as an.
• 12:38
  Audience. Yeah, well.
• 12:40
  And so, yeah, it's, it's so as you flick through, you can see
• 12:44
  come back, come back, one slide maybe to the left.
• 12:47
  I think this is your screen, no? Yeah, no, yeah.
• 12:49
  Is it? Is it me sharing?
• 12:50
  I'll let me. Yeah.
• 12:50
  Oh, yeah, it is. It is too.
• 12:52
  I will. I'm glad you're on top of this
• 12:53
  because we come back here. So this is just you can see some
• 12:57
  of the designs and. Where is some product.
• 12:59
  I know there is product. This is the store.
• 13:01
  From the outside you can see this is their eyewear, right?
• 13:05
  Yeah, they're famous eyewear. Yeah.
• 13:07
  It's wild. So, you know, as I said, be 14
• 13:09
  stores and. 14 floors. It's 14 stories whole.
• 13:13
  I mean some it's it's the design isn't incredible.
• 13:16
  The first floor, as you see, is that that that John animatronic
• 13:20
  dashound named Sunshine when you walk in that what I showed you
• 13:23
  before on level 2 is the gentle monster eyewear 3 and 4 is is
• 13:28
  other brands. So I'm going to say a tissue
• 13:30
  head headwear and new black tableware and design objects.
• 13:34
  There's a tea house. It's incredible.
• 13:36
  So when you walk through this door, you don't really feel like
• 13:41
  as if you don't really feel like a customer.
• 13:43
  This is so when we talk about Wellness here, we're talking
• 13:46
  about a multi sensory immersion. Gentle monitor uses scent, yeah,
• 13:50
  light spatial design and movement, texture to induce
• 13:55
  calm, wonder and introspection. So what they're trying to do is,
• 13:59
  is slow down the retail experience to encourage visitors
• 14:03
  to wander, to pause and to discover and not be rushed.
• 14:07
  Got you. So the whole design lens lends
• 14:09
  itself to mindful engagement. So you're you're having a
• 14:11
  mindful of experience, you're having a mental refresher.
• 14:14
  Yeah. In a retail experience, which,
• 14:16
  you know, we all know retail, it can be not a very rentally
• 14:19
  refreshing experience, right. Yeah, it's gone completely.
• 14:23
  Counter. I know, I love.
• 14:25
  I think that the other thing they do with having such amazing
• 14:28
  stores they create, create their own advertising campaign.
• 14:32
  Everyone wants a. Photo of them by that dog, which
• 14:36
  will circulate around Instagram and whatever.
• 14:39
  And we're like, well, where is that?
• 14:40
  People will get down. This has only been open for four
• 14:43
  weeks, so it's pretty cool. So if you go to Seoul, go and
• 14:48
  check this out. It's I'm going to have a quick
• 14:49
  look. It's I.
• 14:50
  Thought we need to go Seoul together as well.
• 14:52
  Yeah, I think we do too. Like I, I the stuff that's
• 14:55
  happening, I've got to, as I said, I use crush loosely, but
• 14:59
  I've got a crush on on Korea because it you, you, you see
• 15:02
  just so many cool things happening up there.
• 15:04
  And it's because it's a little bit of an island.
• 15:06
  You see stuff that's happening. They've got a bit of a mental
• 15:08
  space between themselves and the rest of the world.
• 15:11
  They just we've. Talked about the K pop
• 15:13
  dominance, right? I'm sorry, K everything, K pop,
• 15:16
  KK fashion, K beauty. It's just incredible.
• 15:20
  They're going from strength to strength.
• 15:21
  Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so but it's you just
• 15:24
  say there's, there's unique thinking that you just not
• 15:27
  seeing in other parts of the world.
• 15:28
  OK, until next week where we have our special guest.
• 15:32
  Thank you, Sir. Lovely to see you.
• 15:34
  See you. See you in a week.