We have decided to tackle an extraordinary topic, offering an overview of what lies behind the boutiques on large cruise ships, which have now become true floating cities.
Gone are the days when ferries featured only a bar and perhaps a few beach items. Today, it’s possible to find a fully-fledged shopping center, albeit on a smaller scale, showcasing the best brands of accessories, clothing, and footwear.
Our analysis is particularly in-depth because, starting this year, XT Retail is the official partner of Costa Crociere, a world leader in navigation, for visual merchandising. Managing the setup of a commercial space onboard a ship is similar to opening a new temporary store: before every departure and after each arrival, shops need to be set up and dismantled.
We refer to them as “shops” because they are true “shop-in-shop” spaces dedicated to individual brands like Armani, Guess, Calvin Klein, LiuJo, Jack Jones, Richmond, and many others. Additionally, there is a space entirely dedicated to cosmetics, under the name “La bellezza“, offering the best skincare and makeup products.
Challenges of visual merchandising on cruise ships
It is hard to imagine, for those who have never experienced it, what it takes to organize a setup on a cruise ship. Just the entry procedures and the time required for setup are governed by strict regulations, often clashing with the arrival of guests. The available time is limited because, once the ship welcomes passengers and departs for its next destination, no further adjustments can be made.
Who better than Serena Rizzi, Costa Crociere’ Visual Merchandising Manager, to answer our questions and provide a detailed overview of the dynamics of retail onboard cruise ships?
Costa Crociere: Italian excellence at sea
What is your current strategy, and how many stores or corners do you manage?
Costa Crociere is an Italian company with over 75 years of history, symbolizing excellence and innovation. Its fleet, consisting of nine ships flying the Italian flag, operates in more than 200 destinations worldwide, including the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, South America, the UAE, and Asia.
Costa Crociere are known for offering unique experiences, both onshore and onboard. A fundamental part of the Costa vacation is represented by the activities and services available on the ships: from gastronomy to entertainment, from wellness to shopping. Each ship features a gallery of shops ranging from 500 to 700 square meters, offering a wide range of products, from clothing and watches to jewelry, perfumes, and cosmetics.
The shopping experience onboard
What motivates your customers to shop in such a unique setting as a cruise ship?
Customers choose to shop onboard to enjoy a unique and immersive shopping experience in an equally exclusive setting: the sea. The average stay of our guests is about one week, allowing us to build a personal and extended relationship, offering experiences that go beyond a simple purchase. We create tailored events and entertainment moments that turn shopping into a delightful surprise.
Moreover, our clientele is international and diverse, including people from over 100 countries. This variety allows us to reach a global audience and adapt our offerings to different seasons and itineraries, ensuring continuous visibility across vast and diverse markets.
Direct management and brand partnerships
What are the main challenges in managing stores onboard?
The direct management of our stores is an innovative choice in our sector, enabling us to establish authentic partnerships with brands. This approach allows us to ensure brand identity consistency and actively collaborate to create dedicated communication moments that enhance the overall guest experience.
At the same time, this management approach entails significant challenges:
- Visual merchandising, which must be both appealing and easy for onboard staff to replicate.
- Staff training to guarantee high-quality customer service.
- Complex logistics, as the lack of a stockroom makes restocking and inventory rotation more difficult.
Differences from traditional retail
We couldn’t conduct this analysis without involving our talented visual merchandisers, who have extensive experience in the industry. It is, therefore, interesting to hear the opinions of those who work behind the scenes, carrying out work that is often invisible to customers.
Let’s start with Sabrina Latina, Senior Account Manager at XT Retail.
What are the substantial differences you found in setting up a space on Costa Crociere compared to other retail setups?
Compared to other setups, the product needs to be more mass-produced because, without a stockroom inside the shop, it is more difficult to restock and rotate the displayed merchandise.
Moreover, defining product seasonality is impossible, as, unlike a physical store on land, the store on the ship moves ‘from cold to warm’ in just a few days.
What are the main technical challenges?
We remain focused on the stockroom issue: even for the assortment of equipment and store hardware, there are safety regulations and procedures that often affect the setup timeline.
Have you noticed different sales methods compared to traditional retail?
Onboard sales are mainly impulse-driven, and the enclosed environment makes it very different from traditional retail. There are no after-sales services, and even cash management is simpler, as there is no cash involved, and sales are VAT-exempt.
To these insights, we add those of Roberta Tolio, Regional Visual Merchandiser of XT Retail for Emilia-Romagna.
Setting up various types of stores on Costa Crociere involves putting into practice all the knowledge acquired over the years as a Visual Merchandiser. You need to adapt the space to the amount of merchandise (and vice versa), considering that the products available at the time of setup may not be replenished for a long time. It is essential that staff can rotate the merchandise autonomously based on sales, maintaining the store’s quality level. Therefore, you need to find the right balance between an appealing display and one that can be easily replicated even by those without specific Visual Merchandising training.
The factor that most affects the difficulty of setting up is the management of the warehouse and restocking. The bureaucracy aboard the ship is very different and more complicated compared to a store on land. Months may pass between one shipment of merchandise and another. Additionally, you have to consider that the ships travel across various continents, with customers of equally diverse tastes. Both the merchandise and the display style must meet everyone’s preferences.
To best tackle a shipboard setup, besides having visual skills, strong problem-solving abilities are essential!”
Finally, a comment from Eleonora Carosi, Regional Visual Merchandiser of XT Retail for Lazio and Umbria.
The main challenge encountered is undoubtedly the lack of an on-site stockroom. On average, we tend to create a more mass-produced display to minimize the need for restocking. As for customer service, it cannot be compared to traditional retail since shop staff are not actual salespeople but rather people gaining experience in commercial spaces with limited continuity.
Staff rotate between shops based on needs and shifts, making it difficult to train them extensively on all product categories available.
Visual merchandising on cruise ships demands technical expertise, flexibility, and exceptional problem-solving skills. It’s a behind-the-scenes job that blends creativity, strategy, and an in-depth understanding of international retail dynamics.
We hope this article has been as enjoyable as a luxurious cruise!
by Paolo Zanardi, XT Retail
by AN ShopfittingMagazine no.184 ©