By Aimee Chanthadavong
Sunglass Hut’s floating pop-up store is making a return again to Sydney Harbour, following last year’s success.
The Luxottica-owned retailer will setup shop along Sydney Harbour to show off over 350 trend focused products from brands such as Ray-Ban, Prada, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Bvlgari, Burberry, Persol, Tory Burch and Coach.
Speaking to RetailBiz, Fabio d’Angelantonio, executive vice president sun and luxury retail and chief marketing officer at Luxottica, said the idea was welcomed by many of customers last year and it was another way for Sunglass Hut to enhance the brand experience.
“Pop-up stores have always been in the DNA of Sunglass Hut. What we’ve done in the past is we’ve had the pop-up store near beaches and sports grounds because people in those areas have always been keen to buy and wear glasses,” he said.
“This floating store was also really a statement to scale up that idea up and make Sunglass Hut a statement brand. The idea was to have pop-up stores in iconic places of big cities where really we could make a statement in association with the brand, with the city and summer.
“So it makes it one of the key moments of the year for the brand.”
However Fabio, notes while it’s a different way a retailer can present itself, it aligns well with the company’s assurance of enhancing the customer experience, which he believes is key to surviving today’s retail environment.
“Customers at the end of the day want to be happy and gratify themselves with a product that makes them more sexy and comfortable. But on the other side they want experience in terms of environment in which this all happens when great service is provided.
“We made this decision years ago we didn’t want to be just any optical retailer but we really want to play in the world of fast fashion. While stores receive new products every week, we put effort into making sure our assets – our staff – make the experience by being able to offer, present and explain the products.”
He also touches on the topic of the importance of the digital channel, revealing the company’s spend in technology globally for next year will be 1 billion euros.
“The next barrier for us is bringing all the opportunities digital allows us and making it more of a gateway for consumers to access the brand rather than just through the physical store.”