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*The IADS visited Rome for the World Retail Congress early in May and took the occasion to visit La Rinascente and Coin Excelsior, among others, for a store review and an innovation spotting session.

To what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic forced local department stores to evolve, in the same way that Paris, Madrid, London or Milan had to follow suit? Has Rome, which is usually lagging behind the economical capital of the country, managed to take that opportunity to upgrade its department store scene?*

La Rinascente

La Rinascente, a former IADS member from 1959 to 2008, takes its origins as early as 1865 with the Bocconi brothers opening a clothing store in Milan, soon followed by branches in Rome, Genoa, Trieste, Palermo and Turin, under the name Alle Città d’Italia. When purchased in 1917, the new owner, Senator Borletti, asked the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio to find a new name, and he came up with La Rinascente, reflecting its rebirth and new approach: a “democratic” approach to luxury appealing to high and middle-income classes./nbsp]

The company teamed up with UPIM in 1928 (as well as Jelmoli in Switzerland which remained a business partner until 1965) and increased its retail footprint across Italy in terms of store numbers (5 La Rinascente, 150 UPIM stores, and 105 supermarkets at its heyday in 1970) and partnerships or acquisition (JC Penney Italia, Auchan..) until it split in 2005. La Rinascente s.p.a. was then created and later purchased by Central Retail Corporation in 2011.

The group now operates 9 stores in Italy, including 2 in Rome (of which the Via del Tritone store opened in 2017), the Turin location opened in 2019 and the Florence location opened in 2020, each different and designed to be destinations by themselves. The latest public information about its total turnover is €800m in 2019, and the 2020 performance is estimated at -30 to -40% of that number. E-commerce has also been launched in the wake of the pandemic in 2020.

The IADS visited the Via del Tritone store in Rome. It opened in 2017 after 11 years and a total investment of €200 mn. It spans over 8 floors including a 2-floors terrace at the top, with an unusual floor plan:

• Exhibition area in the basement,
• Luxury accessories at the entrance on the ground floor,
• Cosmetics on +1,
• Women’s and Men’s fashion on +2 and +3,
• Shoes and contemporary accessories on +4,
• Home goods and food on +5 and access to the terrace.

Initially planned to open in 2012, the delays were due to the findings of major archeologic treasures, that are now on display in the basement of the store: the remains of a Roman aqueduct. This is the reason why La Rinascente decided to take advantage of that to set up its exhibition area there (usually used for commercial popups rather than cultural shows). At the time of the visit, an immersive and very well-executed pop-up dedicated to vintage design was on display.

What is striking in the building structure (apart from the fact that it also incorporates the remains of the Palazetto, a building from the early ‘900s) is the cavedio (a courtyard) which acts as a well of light and spans across the whole height of the building from the ground floor to the top floor. As a consequence, even though this is an invitation to go from one floor to another, circulation can feel somehow a bit cramped as each floor is organized with this empty volume in its middle. It also allows to embrace almost the totality of the department in one glance, but this can also be a drawback too, as there is almost no possibility to surprise customers with the pleasure of discovering something that was not seen when arriving on the floor. As a consequence, visibility is key for brands, and they are all rivaling to make sure they can be spotted from the escalators or the floors, leading sometimes to an overwhelming feeling.

The execution of the food floor and the access to the terrace is extremely well done: all products are presented in a manner which makes them very attractive, and one must say that the terrace is among one of the best available in the city (and advertised as such in Roman hotels to tourists).

For anyone with the habit of larger and probably more traditionally-structure department stores, the feeling left after the visit is the one of a well-executed store, with a very good array of brands, but somehow with a difficult circulation and an offer which is hard to read. This is mainly because of the dual structure: a ground floor and an underground which are easy to navigate and quite clear, while the top floors, which are all organised around the light well, propose an entirely different experience, navigation and product offer reading.

Coin Excelsior

Coin was founded in 1916 in the Venice region and evolved into various formats until becoming a department store per se in 1957 in Trieste, in a former Ohler department store location. It then expanded across the country and now operates 39 stores of various formats, including the Coin Excelsior one which is more upmarket than the traditional Coin stores (mixing the Coin brand name with Excelsior, a concept store owned by the group and specialized in high-end fashion). The group also owns OVS (midmarket apparel department stores) and UPIM, which was bought following its split with La Rinascente in 2010.

The IADS visited the Coin Excelsior located in via Cola di Rienzo, a “contemporary department store” which opened in 2014 with an investment of €8mn and spans over 3 floors and 4.300 square meters.

Although during the visit it was clear that the store reflected its age (on this positioning, 8 years seem a lot), one must say that the way it is structured and merchandised is quite surprising, with a few interesting innovations.

First of all, this is, like El Corte Inglés and other IADS members, a department store which includes a supermarket in its basement, even though it is quite small. What was striking however was the use of technology in a simple way and with clear incentives for the customers:

• Cash desks are fully automated, with a steward navigating to help customers. Payment points are very visible and designed in a way that they come naturally as a conclusion to the shopping journey (allowing to clearly define a navigation direction, which is quite useful in the Covid-19 context).
• An app, heavily advertised on-site, also allows an evaluation of the savings made by proposing to compare the prices.

Even though the supermarket zone is small, it allows to draw a certain type of customer in the store and connect it to the neighboring populations.

Rather surprisingly, upon exiting the supermarket, customers have to cross a food zone where they have the option to either eat on site or pick up their meal. They have no other possibility than crossing it to go to the rest of the basement, which mixes Home & Decor, kids’ fashion, lingerie and toys. For each category, the set up is well executed (end even very immersive in the case of the Home & Decor offer, sold under the Coin Case private label name), but the transition between them is quite abrupt and even disorientating.

Similarly to the basement, the ground floor mixes different categories:

• Cosmetics and perfume with the usual suspect brands, all displayed with their own branding in light shop in shop structures,
• Jewellery, including a Tiffany’s store which has a separate entrance on the street in addition to the in-store connection,
• Lifestyle, with Nespresso and Dyson, both of them with significant spaces and which are, according to Coin, quite successful both in terms of driving traffic and sales. Coin is increasingly entering partnerships (similarly to Manor and others) to expand its offer and access new customer bases,
• Jewellery and leather goods, with low and mid-market brands,
• A “Lifestyle hub” which includes tech, gadgets and even electrical cars. The name of this zone is not properly displayed and can be somehow confusing, which is all the more surprising that Coin advertises it as its new experiential showroom / concept store / space of discovery designed to attract a younger clientele (this new space has been launched in nationwide Coin Excelsior stores as a new concept in 2021).

The overall impression left on the ground floor is a profusion of brands expressing themselves on dedicated spaces, with an interesting (and surprising) curation and juxtaposition, but, just like this is the case in the basement, transitions between unrelated categories give the feeling that this spatial organization was made out of necessity rather than with a specific store planning vision in mind.

The first floor is dedicated to Women’s and Men’s Fashion, displayed both in shop-in-shops (including an impressive All Saints space) and in corners, and mainly in the mid-market segment. The Men’s section is displayed with floating furniture suggesting that the offer constantly evolves, while the Women’s one is structured with fixed fixtures. Also, the space and mezzanine allow giving a great view of the concept store part of the ground floor, as well as the Art Deco architecture of the building.

When leaving the building, the impression that is left is somehow confusing: there are many great ideas and brands or categories juxtapositions in the store, but ultimately it is difficult to identify who is the actual target customer or even the positioning of the store: while the Coin Casa, bakery on the basement or the fashion offer suggest that this is a store addressing a classical and middle-market customer, the Tiffany’s store at the entrance or the co-operated Dyson and Nespresso stores give the impression that Coin Excelsior is trying to stretch itself to the luxury category, and therefore trying to address all customers with one bait.

*Is Rome a Dolce Vita for department stores? While it has been an obviously historical touristic hotspot, when it comes to retail, Rome is more famous for its local and family-owned stores, rather than its department stores.

La Rinascente Via del Tritone, the second flagship of the company after the Milan store, addresses international luxury customers according to a robust playbook, but, due to the structural efforts it had to make to adapt to the city’s specificities (especially the archaeological treasures hidden in its soil), the result is somehow disappointing when compared to other players located in other cities, including Milan.

Coin Excelsior, on its side, displays many innovative concepts and initiatives, however, the store organization and difficulty to understand its positioning makes it a store that is difficult to understand.

It seems that, unlike in other European cities which took the opportunity of Covid-19 to work on their offer, positioning or brand perception, there is still some way to go for players in Rome in that perspective.*

Credits: IADS (Selvane Mohandas du Ménil)