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Introduction

*Lacoste (part of MF Brands Group, owner of Manor) has 1,100 stores in 98 countries but didn’t have any flagship stores until 19 May 2022 when they opened their first one on Paris’ Avenue des Champs-Elysées, which can seem surprising for a company which topped the €2bn sales as early as 2016.

Dubbed “Lacoste Arena”, the brand new 3-storey store displays on 1,600 sqm no less than 9,500 products, from footwear to ready-to-wear for men, women and kids. The store is all about showing and emphasizing the link between fashion and sport, by balancing experiential spaces, entertainment corners and sales areas, to address all types of shoppers: fashion and streetwear fans, sport addicts or consumers looking for sustainability.

The IADS had the opportunity to enjoy a private tour of the store. Besides the expected (and now necessary) experiential features, what are the key store highlights? Is this flagship a fair example of what the store of the future could be? How is CSR included? You can also dive in deep by having a look at the store review in pictures here.*

The Lacoste Paris Flagship Store in Photos

The Lacoste’s store portfolio includes with this store a new and unprecedented format

Paris’ Lacoste Arena is the first of a list of a new breed of stores in ‘flagship cities’: after Paris, London is set to open by the beginning of 2023, and more undisclosed locations will follow. For locations other than ‘flagship cities’ (‘key cities’ in the brand’s jargon), stores will be upgraded.

In addition, pop-up locations will open depending on market opportunities, specific collections, and seasonality, always with the ambition to blend in with the local atmosphere and culture. The Lacoste Country Club, which opened in May 2021 in Los Angeles’ Melrose, is a fair example of this strategy. This summer, a pop-up store will serve vacationers in Ibiza, and another one is planned to open in Berlin.

Visiting the Lacoste Arena: it’s all about mixing sport and fashion, and experience

First of all, the store has been fully designed by Lacoste’s in-house architectural team in Paris. Only some of the light wood furniture created by architectural practice Ciguë for Lacoste’s regular stores has been used, the rest is new and unprecedented, taking cue from tennis courts with the usage of concrete and white and green wire fence.

In line with Lacoste’s global strategy, this new format highlights the brand’s full product range (beyond the polo shirt) and increases the focus on women’s categories: although Lacoste is a men’s dominant business, one of the goals is to grow the women’s revenue.

*Ground Floor*

As for the store layout itself, the entrance features a large open window with concrete bleachers resembling tennis courts. Showing the brand’s ambition to blend fashion and sport, categories are mixed on the ground floor first area. It features both women’s and men’s most fashionable collections, capsules and product drops, as well as a large wall dedicated to footwear. A special capsule collection by artistic director Louise Trotter celebrating the Champs-Elysées and a small event area (for DJ sets and special sneakers personalization by artists) are completing this section.

The rest of the ground floor is dedicated to sports practice and more technical products with 3 rather small areas (tennis, golf and fitness/training).

Finally, a large cash desk is here to process sales, and a large service counter is dedicated to click & collect.

*First Floor*

A large staircase leads to the first floor which offers a ‘lifestyle’ feeling with women’s, men’s and kids ready-to-wear as well as handbags. The will to mix fashion and sports results in intertwined products (track suits and men’s suits for instance) with a result that can be sometimes a bit confusing.

The floor key areas are:

• A large space dedicated to both product customisation and ‘Durable Elegance’ (Lacoste’s sustainable claim),
• An impressive interactive carousel displaying polo shirts coming along with the usual polo shirt colour wall. Regular collaborations with influencers oriented toward the polo shirt will complete this offer: called Lacoste By, the first one is onboarding Lucas Omiri.

Overall, the store is quite packed with merchandise but feels airy and well lit. In addition to the large cash desk on the ground floor, mobile payment stations are available to ease the payment process for the best-selling products.

The store also features a basement, described below.

Customer experience: QR codes, crocodile fun and customization

The store clearly ambitions to renew the Lacoste customer journey through interactive and immersive experiences:

• Throughout the store, QR codes allow customers to access AR experiences staging crocodiles, Lacoste’s famous signature. At the store entrance, a QR code transforms a large wall (stating the sentence ‘crocodile spoken here’ in several languages) into a water pond with a crocodile inviting customers to visit the store. When entering the sports section on the first floor, another QR code allows customers to meet again with the Lacoste crocodile wandering the shop floor. Of course, images can be posted on Instagram, and it’s fun, well-done, but one can wonder what  the real added value of such a feature is. Customers are now expecting that kind of entertainment but what is the real ROI for the brand? Is there more to it than shoppers’ posts on Instagram?
• The tennis, golf and fitness sections display an immersive and interactive tennis court floor with balls bouncing under customers’ feet. A sound system also airs a tennis match atmosphere with referee comments such as “game, set, match”. No phone is needed here: one just has to walk to play with the tennis balls.
• Dressing rooms are worth mentioning as they also represent an experience: they look like stadium locker rooms and offer a fun infinity mirroring effect.

QR codes are also used to enhance the customer journey with a more efficient and business-driven digital-embedded shopping feature:

• In the sneakers area, the ’Scan and try me’ service allows customers to scan the product QR code, choose their colour and size (for up to 3 pairs), add the selected products to their try list, and hit the ‘bring them to me’ button. Sales associates will then swiftly get the products. It’s worth noting that all products are equipped with RFID technology to maximize inventory capabilities.
• Other QR codes are also available to register to the brand’s loyalty program, the ‘Club Lacoste’.

Some features are here to increase the fun and personalize the experience:

• The first floor has a photo booth where one can have their picture taken with the crocodile logo of their choice. The picture will be added to the ‘Croco Wall’ displayed at the floor entrance and illustrated as part of the Lacoste community and diversity.
• The customisation area is big, visible and allows customers to choose among a wide variety of Lacoste’s signatures and crocodiles to be sewn on polo shirts in addition to their initials. Sneakers and bags can also be personalized the same way all day, every day and in real-time.
• On the first floor, Lacoste’s hero product takes the lion’s share: in addition to the polo shirt wall (rather small for a flagship store), some of them are displayed on an interactive carousel showing the variety of the offer: customers can select their favourite shirt on a screen and the carousel will bring it in front of them. It’s a beautiful and fun installation which hopefully can translate in sales.

Finally, on the 200 sqm basement, Lacoste Arena offers what they call the Guestroom, a space that will be open to different types of guests and events. For the time being, and since the store occupies what was once an historical French movie theatre, the space highlights the history of its founder, mirrored with René Lacoste’s. The space also hosts historical pieces (such as René Lacoste’s jacket) and some of the most spectacular Lacoste pieces such as a polo shirt made of ceramics. In the future, the Guestroom will welcome artists or young entrepreneurs. Considering the square meter cost on Champs-Elysées, one can wonder how long it will take to Lacoste to transform the basement into a sales space…

The store is also a poster advertisement for Lacoste’s CSR efforts

As illustrated in the 2022 IADS Operation meeting dedicated to CSR, retailers know how hard it is to both decide on the best CSR strategy for the business and ultimately what to show to customers. Lacoste is no exception. The brand dedicates a large area to show its sustainability efforts on the first floor. The ‘Durable Elegance’ space features a very beautiful display exclusively made of cotton rubbish as well as their 3 more responsibly-made polo shirts.

In this space, customers can also bring back old Lacoste items, to be recycled into tote bags or hangers. The area is meant to evolve according to Lacoste’s sustainability progress. Although the space is large and beautiful, it doesn’t show a lot despite a strong intention.

In terms of inclusivity, the mannequins on the first floor have been designed by morphing some of the company’s employees’ faces and bodies. The result is kind of great as it shows more realistic body figures in a beautiful way. The Croco Wall is also meant to show the diversity of the brand community.

Conclusion

*With a polo shirt sold every 3 minutes since the opening, the store has seen 80,000 visitors in less than 3 weeks making its opening a success so far. It shows the brand renewed ambitions to appeal to both local and tourist shoppers, to both sports addicts and fashion enthusiasts. It will also serve as a place to experiment with new features and imagine how they could improve, evolve and maybe translate into other locations.

Also, although e-commerce has been very strong, the company’s investment in the store reflects its continued belief in physical retail. In addition, by mixing an extensive product offer, with experiences, entertainment and cultural exhibitions, Lacoste Arena offers its own version of what the store of the future could be, just like the 10,000 sqm new Dior flagship store which also recently opened avenue Montaigne. While the store intends to address all consumer groups, the brand also wants to make sure to reach out to the GenZ thanks to the streetwear products and AR fun crocodile features. In any case, this new store should be added to a refreshed list of new retail locations in Paris for any IADS member coming to France for a market visit.*

Lacoste Arena

50 avenue des Champs-Elysées

75008 Paris

Credits: IADS (Christine Montard)