Immigration May Stop But Foreign Brands Keep Coming

Forbes

27-05-2025

The exterior of the Chopard mansion that has become the new Lalique store in New York.
The U.S. is the largest and most competitive retail market. Success here brings scale and validation in other markets.
Especially in Asia, many consumers aspire to own products that are made by popular U.S. brands. America is often the great unlock for worldwide success and brand growth.
While many non-U.S. brands have found success here, they're in the minority. For most non-U.S. brands, America is more graveyard than goldmine for their worldwide ambitions. It's a crowded, fast-moving and mercilessly competitive market that's hard to stand out in. It looks a lot easier to succeed here than it really is.
But they keep coming because the promise is so great.
So it is that three French brands have recently opened (or re-designed) new stores on expensive, prime real estate in New York. Each brings a unique approach and takes a different kind of retail gamble.
One is the department store Printemps. Arriving with a big splash and written about extensively (including by me), its reviews are universally positive.
Retail expert, advisor and investor Ken Pilot said about it, 'I can't remember the last time I walked into a store and was blown away.' He loves the displays, the merchandising surprises around every corner and the artful consistency of presentation across brands. As Pilot says, 'art, design and shopping converge seamlessly' in the new Printemps store.
The other new store by a French brand is Lalique, the legendary French tabletop brand renowned for its crystal glass creations and iconic bottles and vases. Lalique was founded in 1888 in Paris by Rene Lalique and today the brand also includes jewelry and fragrances.
The Lalique store is getting a lot less attention than the Printemps store. So let me show it to you.
The outside (pictured above) could not be a more elegant New York entrance. It's a mansion owned by the Chopard family that is now leased to Lalique.
When you enter there's a stairs (or lift if you're disabled). At least when I was there, a person greets you at the top of the stairs.
The entrance to the store.
The rear of the first floor.
First floor main area.
Second floor selling area.
Second floor fragrance area
The new store was inspired by the Lalique bar at the well-known restaurant Daniel where it allowed high-end customers and collectors of Lalique to see the brand in a new way.
James Mun, CEO of Lalique, said previous U.S. Lalique stores were 'very traditional.' But 'we weren't seeing a lot of our collectors and die-hard fans' in the stores and we 'weren't seeing a lot of new next generation' consumers come in either. So Lalique decided to 'revamp the retail experience' to 'educate the next generation of Americans" about Lalique.
The new store is right beside stores of the jewelry brand Graff, luxury brand Hermes and leather brand Goyard. Mun says they hope to attract those high-end customers to the Lalique store.
Mun says the townhouse allows them to show other products including fragrance and interior designs which Mun says is the company's fastest growing segement. He says the store is more of a 'home environment' and they are 'breathing Lalique life into it.'
The Lalique store is gorgeous and it's a pleasure to be in such a beautiful environment.
Mun is right to think about how to integrate their online presence with their store. Consumers want brands to speak with one voice and to shop interchangably between online and physical stores. He's also right to think about attracting younger consumers. If Lalique can't do that, their future is a big question mark.
But when I consider the potential success of the store, it makes me wonder about a few things:
- Will consumers find it? Lalique isn't big enough to have a giant advertising budget and while the Goyard/Hermes/Graff customer base might see it, few other casual passersby will. It can be fun to shop in a beautiful New York mansion but if you don't know it's there it's not worth much.
- What makes retail interesting now? The Printemps store is fun to be in. What makes that true is hard to define exactly and it's a little different for each person. Printemps is offering clothing, footwear, fragrance and beauty but above all, food. Every area of the Printemps store has either a bar or restaurant or some offering where shoppers can sit and be part of the environment.
And it has action. The merchandise is different from what you'll see almost anywhere else and the food keeps the people inside. All those elements make it more likely that a consumer will buy something. Lalique doesn't have that.
Printemps has people that look like you or what you'd like to look like. It feels right as a customer to be in an environment where you feel like you belong. When I was in the Lalique store on a sunny, 70-degree day, there was one other customer on one of the floors. It makes a consumer wonder: why am I alone here? What does everyone else know?
You might say that the private, exclusive, rarefied atmosphere is a key to success in luxury. But Hermes and Chanel do pretty well being on some of the most heavily foot-trafficked streets in New York with tons of traffic in-store.
If the Lalique store is going to do well, it will take time for people to find out it's there; Lalique can't afford a blowout marketing budget. The store has to work.
It will also take adaptation. They're planning events and there's no doubt that will help. But having a store on an expensive piece of real estate that isn't visible to the high-end consumers going by is kinda risky.
If you build a store that looks like someone else's, it's not interesting and consumers don't come back.
That's what's so interesting about the newly redone Longchamp store on Spring Street in Soho in New York.
When you enter, you're looking at what must be one of the most interesting stairs in a public place in New York, here:
Stairs at entryway of Longchamp store in Soho, New York
And the view from the top of the stairs is just as interesting. It makes you want to walk on it.
Top view of the staircase at Longchamp store in Soho, New York
The store is on a busy shopping street with lots of pedestrian traffic, the window is inviting and the store is intriguing. But of course the product and the store experience are what will make it succeed or not and here Longchamp acquits itself well.
Longchamp store shop floor area in Soho, New York
There's no question when you're in the Longchamp store that handbags and small leather goods are the brand's identity, there's no mistaking it. The prices are accessible, you can buy a handbag for well under $200 and it's hard to find one more than $600.
The sales staff is well trained, knowledgeable about the product and helpful without being overbearing. They are also keyed in to comment kindly on something about how you look.
I was not told what the rent is or how much the improvements cost so I can't say if Longchamp is getting a good return on its investment. But the store works and it's both a great showcase for selling and a fun place to be.
I'm not the only one who thinks so. The store is busy and there were many customers even though I was there on a rainy weekday afternoon. There are multiple events and activities going on in the store they'd like to try, like painting photography and refreshments.
All three stores, Printemps, Lalique and Longchamp are unique in their own ways. That's important because consumers don't want more sameness. But uniqueness can be risky because American consumers can be fickle and often don't respond the way non-U.S. consumers do.
If Printemps and Longchamp keep doing what they're doing it appears that their New York stores will be successful. But the Lalique store is less clear. They need to get more people in the store and the path to doing that is difficult and costly. It's one of the most vexing problems in retail: how do you adapt an established brand that works well abroad to what U.S. consumers want now?
If you're successful in your home market, it's easy to believe you'll be successful in the U.S. and that motivates brands to try. But success in America isn't guaranteed by pedigree and it's a big investment to market in the U.S. For foreign brands, the formula requires deep consumer understanding, smart store design and often, a willingness to rehtink legacy.
But it's also a big opportunity. And that's why, no matter what happens with immigration, the scale, status and singular challenge of retail success in America will keep the brands coming.