Paris opens dedicated welcome center for foreign shoppers

Galeries Lafayette recently opened a Shopping and Welcome Center designed specifically for large Asian tour groups to help improve their shopping experiences.

Paris’ popular shopping center Galeries Lafayette recently opened a Shopping and Welcome Center to help tourist groups complete the best possible experience when within the store. Designed with particularly large Asian tour groups in mind, the new center is located across the street from the brand’s flagship location on Boulevard Haussmann. Like duty free shopping, the new center provides a wide range of best selling products, many with labels in multiple languages.

Some of the bespoke services on offer within the gold-painted center include a multi-lingual welcoming committee, an app, private rooms for special occasions and guests and a fully automated tax refund system. With popular products for sale including gifts, food, accessories, jewelry, leather and beauty items, groups with a limited time to spend in the store may be able to buy everything they need from the new center. Those with more time can take advantage of both the welcome center services and the more leisurely browsing offered by the main store.

Considering the importance of consumer spending in economies around the world, it is of little surprise that innovation in retail is often focused on customized and personal experiences. One South Korean beauty brand has solved the common challenge of helping customers indicate whether they would like help from an employee, or are just in the store to browse, through the use of color-coded shopping baskets. In a mall in Shanghai, a room is dedicated to helping the partners of avid shoppers relax, offering drinks, massage and entertainment options during the wait. What other aspects of the shopping experience could be improved through creative customer service approaches?