The Luxury Customer Wants to Be Cuddled Much More

Value Retail's chair Desirée Bollier on the growing demand for 'superfluous service' and experiential retail

- Pooja Singh

Post covid one thing every shopper learnt was that they could buy everything, well, almost everything, online. That switch to the swipe of the phone has continued to push several luxury brands as well as retail stores to step up their game and offer something new, something different.

New and different is what Value Retail, the UK-based owner of a dozen open-air luxury shopping destinations in Europe, the US and China, is always working on. The shopping destinations, referred to as villages, offer last season's stock at 40% off original prices, besides a smattering of latest products. "Today, you can Amazon anything. So, you have to constantly think about what it will take to get the customer out of the house," says Desirée Bollier, the chair and global chief merchant of Value Retail. "You have to give them more than a shopping experience."

The villages are essentially catering to the travelling customer who's a fashion loyalist but doesn't want a transactional relationship with luxury. Over a span of 30 years, they have built a strong following. The Bicester Village, the first ever outpost started in 1995 in the UK, now has about seven million visitors a year and is the second most popular destination for Chinese tourists in Britain after Buckingham Palace. It generates among the highest sales per square foot of any shopping mall in the world. Indians are among its top five visitors. In an interview, Bollier talks about the idea behind the villages and what the retail luxury customer wants.

Edited excerpts: It's been 30 years of the Bicester Village. How has the brand evolved?