Lagardère Travel Retail (Belgium)
THE CHALLENGE
Provide real-time insights into sales performance to empower shop management and optimise intraday staff planning
Lagardère Travel Retail is a leading global travel retailer, with operations in three segments : travel essentials, duty free & fashion and food services. It operates an international network of sales points in around one thousand airports, train stations and diplomatic stores, providing on-the-move travellers with everything from duty-free perfume, cosmetics, alcohol and tobacco, to clothing, fashion & luxury items, snacking and meals.
Why forecasting travel retail is difficult
Forecasting in travel retail is special. There’s a constant ebb and flow of customers, with a vast range of customer profiles, encompassing people of countless nationalities, cultures, languages, socioeconomic status, age, occupations, … And it can change dramatically from one day to the next. Traffic flow can be intense or sporadic, seasonal factors such as holidays, weather and events can be strong predictors of sales … or be irrelevant.
Why accurate, quick forecasting is crucial
To enable them to optimise sales, travel retailers need to be flexible and adaptable. They need to:
● understand the patterns of the ebb and flow of store traffic so that they can adapt the staff and attention to changing demands throughout the day (and night)
● understand who is buying what, where and when to optimise assortment
● get actionable insights into who is not buying and why they’re not buying
● identify, understand and predict patterns in order to adapt strategy
● know what to sell at what times to optimise the merchandising
● find and quantify opportunities to run promotional activities
THE SOLUTION
Granular segmentation and real-time tracking, for on-the spot predictions and sales actions
Identifying the business needs
Lagardère asked Jetpack.AI to help them improve their sales and their staff empowerment and planning through better monitoring, analysis, insights and forecasting. Together, they identified the requirements:
● accurate, real-time sales tracking to help steer shop management
● insights into untapped sales opportunities, in the form of specific customer segments, locations, or product categories
● mobile access to information and insights – to keep boots on the ground
● ways to monitor the store, customer flows, and staff for optimal staff planning.
The Jetpack.AI solution
Jetpack.AI developed a solution tailor-made to Lagardère requirements: Tarmak.
Tarmak provides optimal data analysis to deliver real-time actionable insights.
● Fine-grade forecasting and real-time performance analysis and alerting.
● Resource planning with real-time updates depending on traffic and staff presence.
● Optimal product assortment and merchandising, lists of key traffic builders and basket generators.
● Optimal shop locations across the airport or train station.
● …and many more custom-built answers to analytically empower the people in the shops.
THE RESULTS
Higher sales and better staff planning through better forecasting and strategic planning
The impact
Jetpack.AI is delighted to have contributed to Lagardère’s success. The Client has reported that thanks to Tarmak, they have achieved:
● plus 5% SPP (Sales Per Passenger) in just a few months
● an improved entrepreneurial spirit among store managers
● increased inventory accuracy
● increased presence of store managers on the shop floor
● better product tracking, with reduced losses due to theft prevention.
What’s next
Jetpack.AI’s collaboration with Lagardère Travel Retail is ongoing. Projects in the pipeline include integrating new data sources, such as in-tracking sensor, to monitor category conversion rates, and adding capabilities for more real-time sales activity recommendations.