CRUISE: RITUALS
Rituals’ strategy sets example to suppliers on the high seas
Neil Ebbutt, Chief, Wholesale & Travel Retail, Rituals says the cruise and ferry channel accounted for approximately 17% of the brand’s DF&TR turnover in 2017. On the high seas, experience and customer engagement remains essential to unlocking travellers’ wallets.
commercial performance in the cruise lines segment? In 2017, sales in the cruise and ferry sectors contributed around 17% of Rituals’ turnover in travel retail. This is a year-on-year increase of around +5% over 2016, so it is experiencing steady growth.
A Rituals-organised yoga session onboard M/S Viking Grace has proven effective in immersing would-be customers in the philosophy of the brand.
H
ow important is the cruise channel to your travel retail strategy?
This is a fast growing but competitive travel retail channel, so it is definitely an important part of our short- and long-term commercial vision for Rituals in travel retail. We plan to achieve our ambition
“Cruise is a leisure business where passengers generally aim to relax and indulge themselves, so ships are designed to entertain the passenger and this improves the mood of the customer as well.”
Neil Ebbutt, Chief, Wholesale & Travel Retail, Rituals
80 TRBUSINESS
by working with the best specialist distributors and tailoring our assortment and pricing to reflect cruise passengers’ buying preferences and price expectations. The cruise business also fits
Rituals’ travel retail 360-degree strategy of touching multiple parts of the traveller’s journey. On board luxury cruise ships, this experience starts in the cabins, for which Rituals provides its hotel amenities. We continue the experience by
helping our cruise partners to provide the ultimate in-store service and shopping opportunity – think of an in-store hand massage or meditation treatment. Rituals has been able to achieve success with this strategy in waters in the Mediterranean, Europe, Caribbean
and
Americas (Brazil). Provide an indication of Rituals’
Are there differences in shopping motives on board cruise ships? There certainly is a difference in shopping motives for the cruise passenger compared to the typical airport shopper. The purpose of the trip contributes to this. Cruise is a leisure business where passengers generally aim to relax and indulge themselves, so ships are designed to entertain the passenger and this improves the mood of the customer as well. In turn, this influences shopping behaviour, with customers more willing to seek advice or get beauty treatments.
Do you pursue a different pricing strategy for the cruise channel? Not at all. Attractive pricing, even for luxury and indulgence purchasing, is still expected on cruise ships. Our strategy is to deliver affordable luxury and we make all our products affordable without compromising our luxury product look and experience. We do not believe those two objectives have to be incompatible.
Who are your target passengers? We have products for men and women, although our core users are women from 20 to 45 years-plus. Millennials are very much in tune with the experiential and authentic values of Rituals’ product concepts, which are all about transforming everyday personal and home routines into more meaningful rituals. We are
MARCH 2018
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