Designer Outlet Roermond emerged as the most successful earlier this year outlet centre in Europe. The outlet did not simply obtain this status and is continuously innovating to maintain it. This also applies to the new collaboration with De Efteling.
Managing director of McArthurGlen Group, the parent company of Designer Outlet Roermond, Pieter van Voorst Vader, is clear: This success is due to a variety of factors. To start with, around 25 million people drive to the outlet from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands within 90 minutes. The location itself is also unique. While most outlets are located along a highway or at least remote, Designer Outlet Roermond is located next to the city center of Roermond. This makes it possible to visit the city after a visit to the outlet and make it a real ‘day out’.
In addition, the outlet is open seven days a week, while both Germany and Belgium often have Sunday closures. Anyone from the area around the outlet who wants to shop on a Sunday can travel to the outlet.
Designer Outlet Roermond does this to maintain its status as the most successful European outlet
These are factors that Designer Outlet Roermond itself can benefit from, but there are certainly lessons to be learned from the outlet’s approach for other shopping areas and city centers. For example, the outlet has focused on making the visit more pleasant and ensuring that visitors spend as long as possible in the area, Van Voorst Vader says in the interview. This is about the combination of shops, catering and entertainment – advice that has been given by experts to Dutch city centers for some time. “We have invested heavily in the restaurants. We thus increase the ‘dwell time’. According to the research we have done, people who have eaten or had a cup of coffee do indeed spend more afterwards.” And it doesn’t stop at just the catering industry, investments have been made in, among other things, a large playground.
One of the many initiatives of Designer Outlet Roermond is the Turn on the Lights event on November 8, which is the kick-off of the winter season. The outlet center does this together with the Efteling and all kinds of characters from the amusement park. “In Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia, there is high brand awareness around Efteling, but the conversion of Germans to Efteling is not that high. For us it’s the other way around. We are less known to some Dutch people, but all Dutch people are very familiar with Efteling. In this way we ensure synergy by combining the outlet with the Efteling.”
When it comes to increasing the ‘dwell time’, the next step is a VIP Lounge, says Van Voorst Vader. “There is a need for this, also from the brands. A brand can also take over the VIP Lounge to hold a private sales event. We already do this in other McArthurGlen outlets in Italy, for example.”
What McArthurGlen is also different with Designer Outlet Roermond is that it does not see itself as just a landlord of the space. It positions itself as a partner. Nowadays, the word ‘collaboration’ is often repeated in the fashion industry, often in combination with ‘partner’, but when Van Voorst Vader speaks about the outlet it is noticeable that the terms are used deliberately.
First of all, McArthurGlen benefits from the brands in the outlet doing well, because it works with turnover rents. So when a store has no turnover, that is also bad for McArthurGlen. “When the capture rate goes down, but the conversion rate goes up, and total sales lag behind – then you know something is going wrong. Then there is probably a security guard at the entrance of the store who simply does not let people in,” says Van Voorst Vader with a laugh. “As Designer Outlet Roermond, we have to get people to the outlet through our marketing activities and then it is the responsibility of the brands to make the conversion, after of course they let the people in.”
Designer Outlet Roermond: Continuously changing the brand mix so that new consumer groups are addressed
Active thinking also applies when it comes to the design of the outlet. There is about ten to fifteen percent change every year. “We want the most relevant brands. We recently welcomed a new brand: Worst Behavior. A precursor in that style was the Balr. store. So we are continuously changing the mix of brands so that new consumer groups are addressed.”
McArthurGlen’s large portfolio also makes a lot possible at Designer Outlet Roermond. “We have around 90 leasing managers across our entire portfolio. These are our in-house brokers. We can help brands with their expansion, but you can also say: Help me with the development of Roosendaal, and I will give you a store in Roermond, or Milan, or Vienna.” This way you get the outlet centres who could use some help, a new, relevant store, and the brand will have a store in one of the better-run centers. A win-win for both.
Van Voorst Vader admits that Designer Outlet Roermond has an advantage over city centers because it has a… self controlled area. “We have one strategy and one budget. We can make all our decisions ourselves and that gives us a huge advantage over that individual retailer somewhere in a city center.” But then there are the inner city associations. “You have to take this seriously, because together you are stronger. Such an association often exists, but little is done with it. Just having a beautiful location in the city center is not enough, you really have to make a party out of it. You must continuously create reasons for the visitor to enter the store and the shopping area.”
He cites the example of Beethovenstraat in Amsterdam. “That street has improved enormously. There are Christmas decorations in the winter, a fair during the spring. Then you create relevance and people will come. That’s actually what we do too, create relevance. ”
Source: fashionunited.nl
