SINGAPORE. The Shilla Duty Free last week celebrated its fourth anniversary as Changi Airport’s perfumes & cosmetics retailer with an exclusive media conference and fan meet for its new brand ambassadors, K-pop sensation Highlight.
The travel retailer said the event was a way of thanking its customers for their support over the past four years of operations in Changi, and “a toast to more bright years to come”.
The celebratory event, held on 12 October at Changi Airport, marked Highlight’s first appearance in Singapore as the appointed face of The Shilla Duty Free. Four of the five band members were present, the exception being Yoon Doo-joon who is completing Korea military service obligations.
The group members spent the morning at The Shilla Beauty Loft, where they were pampered with skin treatments, hand massages and makeover services from prestige beauty brands including Dior, La Prairie and SK-II. Located on the mezzanine level of Shilla’s Terminal 3 Transit Departure Central duplex store, The Shilla Beauty Loft was hailed as a global first for airport retail when it opened in 2015.
After experiencing the beauty facilities and services, Highlight sat down for a closed-door press conference in Changi Terminal 4 where they greeted media – including The Moodie Davitt Report* – from Singapore, China and Indonesia. The members fielded questions that ranged from their must-have travel essentials to their latest individual projects, and spoke with enthusiasm about being The Shilla Duty Free’s latest ambassadors.
Following the press conference, Highlight fans – known collectively as Light – had the opportunity to get up close and personal with their idols at a highly anticipated ‘hi-touch’ (meet and greet) session at the Terminal 4 Departure Hall public area. Excited fans from across the globe were treated to an energetic performance of four of Highlight’s hit songs.
The Shilla Duty Free said Highlight’s appearance as part of the fourth-anniversary celebrations marked “a significant milestone” for the travel retailer. The group’s “friendly charm and electric charisma lit up the celebrations, and connected [Shilla] to its many Korean culture-loving customers”.
The event also exemplified Shilla’s “commitment to creating unique, memorable, and experiential events” as the go-to beauty destination for travellers, it added.
The Shilla Duty Free Vice President of Global Merchandise Division Raelene Johnson commented: “We are delighted that the Highlight fan meet was met with a resounding success. The talented K-pop icon showcased their bright energy as they put together a spectacular performance for fans, and we are thrilled to have brought much excitement and smiles to our customers’ faces.
“This celebration marks another eventful milestone for The Shilla Duty Free, as it was our way of showing our heartfelt appreciation to our loyal customers for their support over the four years. Elevating the beauty and travel retail experience is always at the forefront of our strategy, and we hope that travellers will continue to find pleasure and enjoyment when shopping with us at the duty free stores.
“We are thankful for the continued support from Changi Airport and the various partners, vendors and teams who made this memorable event possible,” she added.
Changi Airport Group Senior Vice President of Airside Concessions Teo Chew Hoon said: “We are pleased to celebrate this anniversary event with The Shilla Duty Free which marks four successful years since their inception in Singapore. As Changi welcomes more passengers, we look forward to closer collaborations with Shilla to bring more surprises and delights that transform the beauty travel retail experience for our fans.”
The Shilla Duty Free looks back on its journey at Changi
The Shilla Duty Free was awarded the Changi perfumes & cosmetics concession ahead of intense competition in late 2013. Since it commenced operations on 1 October 2014 with 19 stores across three terminals, the travel retailer has established itself as a key beauty destination in the region.
“As Shilla’s first entry into the international airport arena, Changi had a high level of strategic importance to the company,” The Shilla Duty Free Managing Director Phil Yoon told The Moodie Davitt Report.
“The initial year was a huge learning curve in all aspects, but we were extremely fortunate to have the full support of our brand partners and importantly, Changi Airport Group. Shilla was able to stabilise and deliver growth by the end of the first year, and to be able to successfully adapt to a new market and operation was extremely rewarding for us.
“After a very intensive first year, we have gone from strength to strength and are extremely proud of the company’s achievements in developing a unique offer for Changi’s customers. It has also delivered exceptional sales performance year on year. Today, we have a sound operation that continues to challenge itself on what can be done to lead the category and create uniqueness for the Changi customer,” he said.
Despite a difficult start, business has improved substantially since, and the company expects to start contributing a percentage of revenues this year, rather than the Minimum Annual Guarantee (MAG) it has been paying until now.
Reflecting on some of the driving factors and key learnings behind this improved performance, Yoon said: “Our teams were fortunate to have the support of our brand partners and Changi Airport Group to quickly address all operational issues. We took all the insights and learnings of our existing Korean operations and adapted them to Changi. We learnt from and listened to our teams and partners who had experience at Changi – and offered invaluable support – and we worked, and continue to work, on a mantra of continual improvement.
“Shilla has learnt the value of market uniqueness and the importance of adapting to each market’s specificities. The value of deeply understanding our customers in the context of Changi was important, and that preferences and buying behaviour vary. Agility and speed-to-action are also recognised as critical to success in a highly competitive and dynamic market.”
The product offer has evolved according to its customer profile and market trends. “Since our initial arrival at Changi, we have enhanced our make-up assortment, prestige skincare and fragrances in line with global category trends. In particular, we have seen exceptional growth in the Japanese and Korean brand segment,” he noted.
“Understanding that our customers have choices and do their own research before making purchases, we have invested in communicating our offers at Changi Airport through social media, key opinion leaders (KOLs), [Changi Airport’s online shopping portal] iShopChangi, as well as in-store. We have worked closely with the iShopChangi team to continually enhance the online offer with continual product expansion and online-specific offers.”
Some of Shilla’s biggest milestones included the opening of The Shilla Beauty Loft and its first anniversary celebration in 2016, which featured an exclusive fan meet at Changi with South Korean celebrity Lee Kwang Soo.
Another key highlight was The Shilla Beauty Concert at Singapore’s Suntec Convention Centre, organised in partnership with Changi Airport Group. “We presented the first Shilla-sponsored K-pop concert in Singapore in 2017 which was a huge success, creating great hype and interest not only within travel retail, but also in the wider market,” Yoon said.
In 2017, Shilla opened its biggest Changi store yet, located at the airport’s new Terminal 4 – another feather in the cap for the travel retailer.
“Together with Changi Airport Group and our brand partners, we had the opportunity to lift the outposts and events within the terminal in terms of execution, retailtainment and digitisation, and created new ways to entertain and reach our customers. We believe this collaborative business approach and understanding of the common goal has contributed to our mutual success at Changi,” he said.
Commenting on Shilla’s outlook at the airport, Yoon said: “We have a high level of optimism for Changi. The airport continues to grow its global traffic and stays committed to innovating in everything it does. We are very proud to be at Changi and to have the opportunity to innovate and deliver new experiences. We want to continue to excite our customers with new product assortments and interesting retail concepts to elevate their travelling experience.”
*NOTE: The Moodie Davitt Report provided on-location coverage of Shilla’s fourth-year celebration via Instagram Stories – check out the ‘#Shilla4YTY’ Story Highlight on our Instagram profile at this link.
