ROS Retail Outlet Shopping kicks off peak summer sales season with loads of events
Vienna, 1 June 2023
ROS Retail Outlet Shopping celebrated the beginning of the peak summer sales period with Late Night Shopping events at Designer Outlet Soltau and Designer Outlet Luxembourg, inaugurating a host of initiatives taking place throughout the summer across the entire portfolio.
The Austrian operator heads into a successful summer period after closing Q1 with a 29% sales increase driven by the new ‘BOLD’ growth strategy launched at the beginning of the year.
ROS Retail Outlet Shopping has successfully kicked off the outlet peak sales period with the latest Late Night Shopping events on Friday 19 May at Designer Outlet Soltau and Designer Outlet Luxembourg with extended opening hours, special offers, food trucks, entertainment and much more, leading into a summer full of initiatives and further surprises across the entire European portfolio of 12 Designer Outlets.
More summer events and shopping experience
Inspired by ‘La vie en rose’, the iconic song by Edith Piaf, Designer Outlet Luxembourg celebrated its Late Night Shopping event, unveiling a pink centre decoration accompanied by attractive offers from more than 60 fashion & lifestyle brands and a great entertainment programme.
Since the takeover from ROS Retail Outlet Shopping in October 2022, the premium outlet village in Belgium at the crossroads of Luxembourg, France and Germany, has increased its sales by +16% and its traffic by +5% compared to last year. Visitors enjoy since the beginning of the year the new Hugo Boss flagship outlet store at the entrance of the centre, directly opposite Tommy Hilfiger. Further anchor stores are Nike, adidas, Gant, The Kooples, Zadig & Voltaire, Guess, Calvin Klein and many more. Newcomer in the village is Only & Sons, the young-minded trendy menswear brand of the Bestseller Group.
ROS Retail Outlet Shopping will celebrate and stage pink as its corporate colour this summer throughout the complete customer journey across its entire portfolio.
Designer Outlet Soltau also brought back its Late Night Shopping event on 19 May, an important long weekend day in Germany. Visitors could shop until 11pm and enjoy exlusive offers, live music, kids entertainment, culinary delights, a beauty truck and much more. The centre recorded a +11% increase in sales over the pre-Covid period of 2019.
The two events marked not only the start of the peak summer sales season, but also the launch of a number of leisure and culinary events to entertain and delight visitors during the summer season.
“We want our visitors to come to our outlet shopping destinations not only to shop, but also to have a good time with friends and family. Inspired by Street Food Festivals, food trucks are the perfect tool to create a unique shopping experience, capturing attention and providing our visitors with international flavours. Come, shop and enjoy our outlet destinations with all your senses”, says Thomas Reichenauer, Co-Founder & Managing Director ROS Retail Outlet Shopping.
These initiatives are part of the current rising trend of mixed-use spaces in the retail real estate sector that is pushing F&B and leisure as a key component in outlet shopping destinations to keep up with consumer demand while encouraging increased dwell time.
More news about the upcoming events will be announced on the respective social media channels and websites of the 12 centres managed by ROS Retail Outlet Shopping. Further special summer anticipation is also due in particularly popular tourist destinations within the operator’s portfolio such as Designer Outlet Algarve, as the number of foreign visitors to Portugal reached record levels during the first quarter of the year.
A strong start to 2023 with +29% in sales
The good summer outlook is preceded by the strong Q1 performance across the outlet shopping destinations the company manages. Sales rose by +23% compared to Q1 2022 and even by +29% compared to the pre-Covid period of 2019, with March being the strongest month overall. Traffic accounted for 12% compared to the first three months of last year and is now above pre-pandemic levels.
“We’ve had a great start to 2023, with our 12 centres showing outstanding results. The upward trend we observed in 2022 has continued this year, demonstrating the strength of the outlet concept and the success of our new growth strategy”, comments Thomas Reichenauer. “It goes without saying that this positive development has been fuelled by the attractive prices that our customers can find in our shopping destinations, especially in periods of economic volatility, as well by our unique shopping experience and the great brands in our portfolio,” he added.
ROS Retail Outlet Shopping, which earlier this year launched its new "BOLD" strategy – Refine Leasing, Boost Marketing, Reframe Retail, Drive Value and Organise for Growth – to drive sustainable growth, has continued to upgrade the brand mix offer at its centres in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Portugal, Spain and Belgium throughout the first quarter.
Recently, the operator opened Skechers at Designer Outlet Soltau, Guess Kids at Designer Outlet Sosnowiec, Puma and Lacoste at Designer Outlet Croatia, Pinko at Designer Outlet Gdansk, Salsa Jeans at La Torre Outlet Zaragoza and Invicta at Designer Outlet Algarve. ROS Retail Outlet Shopping will also add new exciting brands to its portfolio in the next months, as the company prepares to welcome summer with great optimism and anticipation.
New LACOSTE store at Designer Outlet Croatia