Shilla adds English language service to its online shopping portal

SOUTH KOREA. The Shilla Duty Free has added an English language version to its online duty free service.

The retailer said its aim was to considerably widen its customer base, as it will now be able to “lower or vanquish language barriers” to travellers from many countries by providing online communications in English.

“It’s a great opportunity to increase our customer base globally,” says Shilla of the English language version of its online duty free service.

The Shilla Online Duty Free commenced the English language version of its online shopping service on 7 August. English becomes the third non-native language of the service, following the introduction of Chinese and Japanese language versions in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

Seoul-headquartered Shilla said that the introduction of English would open up new opportunities for business from East Asian travellers in particular. The company noted that Korean Tourism Organization statistics have shown a significant increase of inbound travellers from Vietnam (+48.8%) and Thailand (+17%) over the course of the last three years. English is widely used by travellers from these countries.

[K-pop band Highlight – an ambassador for The Shilla Duty Free – introduce the online English language service in this video, which the retailer posted on its Facebook page].

To coincide with the introduction of the new service, Shilla has targeted social media engagement with Vietnamese and Thai travellers “to encourage the trialling of online duty free shopping among these nationalities”. The Shilla Online Duty Free official Facebook accounts in Vietnamese and Thai languages also came online on 7 August.

A statement from Shilla said: “The Shilla Duty Free is thrilled to start supporting English in our online duty free channel. It’s a great opportunity to increase our customer base globally and moreover, we look forward to presenting The Shilla Duty Free and South Korea’s cutting-edge online shopping service to travellers from all around the world.”

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