Park Avenue by Raymond to make comeback with new retail concept

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Oct 12, 2017

This November, Raymond’s more youthful clothing line, Park Avenue, will re-open its first New Delhi store and show the fruits of its new brand and retail makeover.

Sharad Walia, the Brand Director of Park Avenue, said about the upcoming store: “Our new retail identity is actually a store which does not look like a store in the exact definition. But it looks more like a photo studio where a person can come and experiment… So there would be very technical use of lighting. These stores will not have lighting all around but there will be impact lighting. There will also be very fluidity in space. So unlike the traditional format of stores which use block for categories, here the display of clothes will be seamless. The store will also have more emphasis on hanging rather than stacking so that the consumer is able to touch and feel the product.”

The new store will be more interactive and have a younger appeal, something the use of technology will help with.

Walia went on to say: “An element which we are trying to infuse in the store is that we are trying to have a digitally-themed avenue which can move back-and-forth in the store. So all the information that we want to give to the consumer right from the facade to the cash counter will be available as it is movable and it creates like an illusion that it is a small road.”

The store plans are ambitious but the aim is to propel the label into a younger market with a strong statement.

The New Delhi store will not be the only of its kind and Walia said: “By the end of this financial year there will be around four to five stores of new brand identity. And by FY19, including renovation, we expect at least 30 stores of new identity out of the total stores.”

Along with changing from a regular store to a more conceptual one, the brand will also change the focus of its clientele and Walia said: “So we are not formals now, we are fashion formals. Formals with a twist. We are really not for an extremely mature consumer, we are for a consumer who is upwardly mobile, urbane, below 40 years of age.”