CHINA. Sunrise Duty Free and Chinese Internet services company Tencent have struck a long-term strategic partnership to take advantage of the fast-growing airport consumer market. The goal, said Sunrise, is to use social media platforms to excel as an online to offline (O2O) shopping provider.
WeChat Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service from Tencent, was officially adopted across Sunrise Duty Free stores at the beginning of December. Payments can be made at contactless points of sale. Consumers are prompted to become members of the Sunrise WeChat official account.
“It is a powerful tool to direct traffic from offline to online and further enhance the membership database,” said the company.
By leveraging the connectivity of its Wechat official account and data analysis through Wechat, Sunrise said it could “implement precision marketing, merchandising strategies and even financial services”.
In addition, Sunrise’s WeChat membership will be integrated into the company’s own membership and CRM system. WeChat members can also tap into the company’s ‘O World’ Virtual Mall duty free concept, recently announced (see Picture Gallery below).
As well as the convenience offered by WeChat Pay, consumers can also enjoy price discounts when shopping with Sunrise Duty Free. Funded by Tencent, marketing campaigns to promote WeChat Pay will take place in stores.
Linked to this, when paying with WeChat Pay, customers are entitled to an instant price deduction. When the total purchase amount reaches a certain threshold, consumers are further entitled to another fixed deduction.
The company added: “Endless consumer benefits are made possible by the partnership between Sunrise Duty Free and Tencent.”
It added: “With the scale of Sunrise’s duty free business and Internet connectivity, the reach of social media platforms and other leading innovations spearheaded by Tencent, the partnership will achieve the ‘internet plus duty free’ O2O goal.
“Sunrise is dedicated to grow into an omnichannel travel retailer, which brings unique products and customer experiences at very competitive prices.”
PICTURE GALLERY: IMAGES FROM THE LAUNCH OF SUNRISE DUTY FREE’S O WORLD VIRTUAL MALL
Look out for an extended feature on Sunrise Duty Free’s transition into an omni-channel travel retailer in the issue of The Moodie Davitt Report Print Edition.
