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In Brazil, DB Schenker works closely with the world’s most luxurious brands to ensure a consistent, predictable customer experience every time.
As more luxury brands set up shop in Brazil, they need high levels of logistics and transportation support to ensure that their Brazilian customer base gets the same experience, quality, and consistency that they would get anywhere around the world.
Making that happen requires in-depth knowledge of the country’s taxation and customs clearance requirements—both of which can impact speed of delivery from the companies’ manufacturing locations to stores and end users in Brazil.
It also requires in-country knowledge of where to locate retail stores and how to outfit them with the right furniture, fixtures, and other interior design elements that help ensure a consistent customer experience.
DB Schenker Brazil works with brands on both levels, ensuring that customers always get their goods in a timely fashion, whether they’re visiting a store or ordering online.
“We not only help with the physical movement of the goods,” says Andre Aragao, National Key Account Manager, VM Fashion and Retail, “but we’re also handling the movement of merchandising units that the luxury retailers need to be able to maintain brand integrity.”
A Booming Market
In surveying Brazil’s retail market, Aragao is seeing a high number of luxury goods makers coming into the market and/or expanding their existing presences in the country. “The market is hot,” says Aragao, “with big names all opening new stores in Brazil.”
With a long history of providing logistics, freight forwarding, and customs clearance services for this market segment, DB Schenker currently manages a large portion of the overall market. “If we’re not managing the complete, end-to-end logistics for these companies,” says Aragao, “we’re handling at least one portion of the process—be it customs clearance, freight forwarding from overseas locations to Brazil, or another service.”
These services are vital in a world where an affluent customer will literally fly a private plane to Miami to buy a high-end purse for an upcoming gala, versus waiting two weeks for it to clear customs and make it onto the store shelves in Brazil. “Importing takes time here,” says Aragao, “and is much slower—sometimes twice as long—than what the top brands are used to dealing with in Europe or North America.”
The problem is that luxury goods are a perishable cargo that needs to be on the shelves and selling quickly. The brands that can’t achieve these tight timetables risk having their expensive goods languishing on the store shelves in Brazil. “We treat the cargo with the urgency that it deserves,” says Aragao.
Special Store Openings
This year, DB Schenker will launch a new division in Brazil that’s dedicated to special store openings. The offering will be tailored to specific customers, and will focus on helping brands open new stores in the country.
“We have an entire team of specialists that has a lot of experience with this process,” says Aragao, “from working with customs authorities, to meeting with key stakeholders to discuss possible locations, to visiting the physical stores to determine the best logistics and delivery setups.”
This all-encompassing offering also includes classification and selection services for the stores themselves, whose furniture, fixtures, and decorations must meet Brazil’s customs requirements in a timely manner, or risk delays in store openings.
“This is a very demanding segment, where the store experience has to be similar around the world,” says Aragao. “There are nuances for every country, but for the most part, everything from the curtain fabric to the sofas to the displays are the same across all stores. We’re working together with our customers to make this happen.”
Tapping into the Power of E-Commerce
Currently growing at a rate of 10% in the Brazil market, DB Schenker is seeing positive growth right now among its luxury customer base. “Every one of these brands is growing individually and is investing on new openings,” says Aragao, “in an effort to grow their market share here.”
Most of those brands have also set their sights on e-commerce—a buying channel that’s gaining in popularity among Brazilian consumers. “Every luxury brand is talking about e-commerce right now, and working to either set up or enhance their online presences here,” says Aragao. “It’s a strategy that works well in Brazil, where more people are shopping online.”
One global luxury brand recently launched its own e-commerce web site in Brazil, while another has started a 2-hour delivery service in areas where its stores are located. As delivery times continue to shorten, DB Schenker is helping companies meet and exceed their customers’ expectations.
“Someone can literally order a luxury bag while she’s getting ready for a party, and have it in her hand before she walks out the door of her house,” says Aragao. “This opens up an entirely new sales channel for luxury goods sellers in Brazil.”
