Bond Street in great demand from luxury retailers

With the online retail juggernaut in full swing, there has of course been a grand shift in the set up of the traditional physical clothing store. Where luxury has endlessly been looking at ways of coordinating and merging multichannel possibilities

into physical stores to boost customer loyalty, there seems to be no lack of demand on London’s famous Bond Street.

Where, once the street was the main luxury shopping destination in Central London, and where big brands such as Louis Vuitton chose to open their UK flagships, pre e-commerce days in 2010, and where to this day still sees the tradition of closing stores on a Saturday afternoon. The past couple of years has seen a shift to the quiet and cobbled neighbouring, Mount Street, previously mainly home to arts and antique galleries and shops, being influxed with boutique openings, including prestigious names such as Roland Mouret, Balenciaga and the new Oscar de la Renta, particularly keen to capitalise on the footfall of the well to do clientele and walk through customer.

Now it seems the new year and 2014 will bring further change as Bond Street shows no signs of slowing down with an array of big luxury names with plans to open - Belstaff, Chanel, and Fendi - all setting up spaces ranging from 20,000 square foot. Whilst Ermenegildo Zegna has ambition plans to expand its retail space to include new collections and couture, whilst also housing art installations and paintings.

But what has ignited this sudden seismic shift?
Bond Street has become the strategic focal point for global luxury brands targeting legions of wealthy foreigners that travel to London each year. In fact, London attracts more than 15 million foreign visitors a year — 70 percent of whom shop during their trip, mostly for clothing — making the British capital second only to Paris in terms of global tourist flows.

Many of the highest spenders come from the Gulf States, Nigeria and Russia, as well as China and Brazil where import duties on luxury goods are high, making shopping in a London a cost-effective option. A fact maybe highlighted by the international sales figures in the Westfield shopping arcades.

Bond Street has international clientele

Indeed, Bond Street is now at the centre of a number of powerful crosscurrents that have transformed the once-quaint street into a thoroughfare of international significance. So luxury brands are using store power on the street as a cachet and attraction to their international clientele.

Peter Mace, head of central London retail at global property consultants Cushman & Wakefield, represents many high-end luxury retailers in London's West End.

He commented: "The appetite for British, and international, luxury brands from Chinese, Russians and other overseas consumers in London has never been higher as prices can be considerably cheaper than back home.” Speaking of demand, he added, “To put this into context, for every one store that becomes available on Bond Street or Sloane Street, we are seeing around 10 international brands fighting for it."

It will be interesting to see if Bond Street can cement itself as an international shopping destination like 5th Avenue, New York and hold down the investments of these grand spaces.