Naf Naf tests checkout-free retail concept on Paris' Champs-Elysées
French fashion retailer Naf Naf has a new blank canvas to experiment on. Now that the retail area of its store on Paris' Champs-Elysées has been reduced by renovation work, Naf Naf seized on the opportunity to try out a new format for a few months. The Room Service pop-up store opened a few weeks ago, and until the end of June it will test the clientèle's reaction to a new retail approach.
The pop-up store's idea stems from an internal analysis on the link between digital tools and e-tailing, and from a desire to offer Naf Naf customers a new type of service, inspired by the world of luxury hotels. To start with, the reception has been re-imagined, and clients are attended to by a larger team than that of a classic store. There is no checkout, you try on the clothes but you do not leave the shop with your purchases. They will be delivered at home, at your hotel or place of work between 24 and 48 hours later for Paris and the rest of France, and in a while longer to reach for example China or the USA.
The range available focuses on the more directional part of Naf Naf's collection. There are only a few sizes on the racks, you have to rely on the advice of the shop assistants, mischievously pink-clad like the entire team, down to the security guard. The whole atmosphere is a little tongue-in-cheek, as Naf Naf seeks to charm the clientele, not an altogether easy task.
"Initially, consumers are surprised and disappointed by the fact they cannot leave the shop with their purchases, French customers in particular," said Marketing Director Véronique Rodriguez. "But they all come to terms with it eventually, since they come back for more," she added.
Naf Naf is relying on the perception it gives consumers that they are considered in a new, more welcoming and less impersonal way. The store's hub is the fitting room, where the clothes selected by customers are wheeled in on a hotel-style trolley rack, and a bell is on hand to call the shop assistants' attention. The interiors, from the fragrance to the music and the decor have been reinvented to suit the new style of service.
From what we observed in-store, the service is much appreciated by tourists. Naf Naf considers Room Service more than a simple test, and Véronique Rodriguez said that "even if the service is expensive to provide, the formula is profitable." "Per square metre, the revenue is 12 times that of the traditional store type, and the average spend is much higher," said CEO Luc Mory.
Now that it has been put up for sale by the Vivarte group, Naf Naf is revamping its appeal with an innovative retail vision, as Luc Mory explained in an exclusive interview to FashionNetwork Premium, and it is keen to replicate this new concept abroad with foreign partners.
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