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Quo Vadis Kö?

The arrival of the luxury giants

and what ‘The Louis’ has to do with it

September 2025

Unrelated to Düsseldorf - currently ©Unsplash

The news for the connoisseurs of the Düsseldorf luxury market overshoots itself. Just now unfolds a spectacle of epochal rank: The Momeni Group shapes the Le Coeur around, where the French luxury perfume house Diptyque shall move in, while Rolex shall build a flagship boutique on the Kö. Chanel enlarged itself and Bentley inaugurated recently a new service centre costing over 4 million euros. Also Van Cleef & Arpels shall move in on the Kö. But the world has changed and this will also arrive on the Kö. Consumers, shaped by economic uncertainty, turn away from pure material acquisitions and seek instead experiences that create memory and community.

US Tariffs of 39% for Swiss Watches

Which forces steer this sudden stream of luxury brands to Düsseldorf? Are it the rents, the recently tightened US-export tariffs or a deeper strategic vision? And which perspectives offers our avenue the arriving brands?

„The Louis“: A Paradigm of Immersive Luxury Strategy

Before we put the Kö in focus, we direct our gaze to Shanghai, where „The Louis“ from Louis Vuitton shall shine as a model of a new era of luxury consumption. This flagship palace, majestically with 30 meters height on the pulsating Nanjing Road throning, wants to be more than a trading house – it goes about the fusion of commerce, culture and gastronomy. A traditional boutique area presents the leather goods and jewels, there is a cafe, a gallery, as well as „Instagrammable“-zones, architectural masterpieces that are designed extra for the aesthetics of social media.

The approach of „The Louis“ bases on the hybridisation: It unites sale, immersion and digital networking. Through QR-codes, WeChat-programmes and CRM-systems data are collected, which enable personalised follow-ups – for example invitations to private sales. This model, known as ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline), uses the preference of the modern consumers to inform themselves online, yet to consume offline. The viral success is unmistakable: Masses of visitors stream there, and the media presence explodes. The revenues, which The Louis generates, are not known.

The Numbers

In the context of an 11% revenue decline of LVMH in the Asia-Pacific region (without Japan) in the first quarter of 2025 and a 18% decline in China 2023 (Bain & Company) it will show, what the experience in „The Louis“ effects with its customers. It sets the question, whether this investment – expensive through prime locations, design and personnel – long-term brand building or short-term sales boosts bears. Similar models are the Prada Rong Zhai.

„I need nothing more“ - A global trend meets the Kö

The change is noticeable worldwide and finds its elegant resonance on the Kö. Consumers, shaped by economic uncertainty, turn away from pure material acquisitions and seek instead experiences that create memory and community. In China, where luxury spendings sank by 18–20% to 350 billion yuan (Bain & Company), a new generation prefers travels and gastronomy. Generation Z and Millennials value „Story Value“ over „Use Value“, as Euromonitor and McKinsey prove, and drive a market, in which experiential spendings 2024 by 5% rose, while luxury goods by 1–3% went back (Bain).

The Düsseldorf Kö in the sight of the luxury-CEOs

The driving forces: Tariffs, rents and strategic vision

Since August 2025 burden 15% tariffs on European and 39% tariffs on Swiss wares the US-market, a shock for the 80-billion-euro-luxury market of the USA. This measure, initiated under President Donald Trump, could cause Swiss brands like Rolex to shift the focus on Europe – and thus Düsseldorf.

How does it look with the rents?

With costs of up to 500 euros per square metre on top locations and monthly sums of over 200,000 euros for spaces like the former Prange-business (Louis Vuitton) they are exorbitant. Yet the vacancy remains minimal, a sign for the strategic appreciation of the Kö by the corporate strategists. But will their luxury palaces meet a sufficient customer base from wealthy Düsseldorfers to international tourists?

Back to the numbers

Düsseldorf’s purchasing power index of 121.4 surpasses the national German average clearly, and the city draws yearly thousands shopping-tourists – Arabs, Russians, Chinese.

Already in a few months the Kö will experience new arrivals of luxury brands. In the next year will then quite probably, adorned with names like Rolex, Cleef & Van Arpels, and Diptyque. One needs not more to travel to Paris, London or New York. There will be glittering openings and store events, this always to the great pleasure of the Düsseldorfers and its influencers. How the numbers will develop, one will see.

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