During the golden week of the 2013 Spring Festival, the tourism market in Hainan Province continued to flourish. Besides the tropical elements of Hainan, such as beaches, coconut trees, blue oceans and skies, shopping in Sanya Duty Free Store has become one of the most attractive highlights and it is enjoyed by both Chinese and foreign tourists. In addition, the Snake Spring Festival was the first golden week since the implementation of Offshore Duty-free Policy last November. The peak passenger flows and the favorable policy significantly boosted the sales of Sanya Duty Free Store. According to reliable sources, the daily sales of CDFG Sanya Duty Free Store on February 11th (the second day of the Lunar New Year) reached RMB 20.18 million, which was dramatically higher than RMB 12.9 million in the same period last year. It exceeded RMB 20 million for the first time and set a new record.
Sanya Duty Free Store received 20,095 customers in total that day. Although the store was full of people, everything went well. Customers around the world carefully selected the commodities which pleased them. Crowds of people gathered in front of the cosmetics counters in particular. It’s understood that many tourists were attracted here when they learned that the off-shore duty-free limit had been adjusted to RMB 8,000. “Compared to the previous limit of RMB 5,000, I’m more satisfied and I have more choice. Also, the purchase restriction of cosmetics was adjusted to 8 items. Because of this, I can not only buy myself some of my favorite brands, but I can also select some for my family and friends.” Miss Zhao, a tourist from Beijing, had fully preparared before she began shopping.
Sanya Duty Free Store has been constantly adjusting its commodities and brand structure according to Chinese consumption habits and market feedback. In 2012, well-known brands such as Benefit, Shu Uemura, Givenchy, Aramis, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Ernest Borel etc. were introduced, which provided more options for customers during golden week.
“This year I spent the Spring Festival in Sanya, Hainan Province, which had a very lively atmosphere, a very comfortable climate and very reasonably-priced goods.” Mr. Wang who was about to leave Hainan for Beijing used three “very”s to describe his wonderful family vacation in Hainan. Mr. Wang’s description of “very reasonably-priced goods” referred to his shopping experience in Sanya Duty Free Store. During the Spring Festival, the Sanya Duty Free Store extended its business hours from 22:00 to 24:00 and launched various kinds of thematic sales promotions including some free product testers, hong bao (traditional Chinese gift, a red envelope containing small amounts of money), lotteries and coupons. Customers responded actively to these real benefits. As for the timely spread of promotion information during the Spring Festival, Sanya Duty Free Store specially arranged publicity boards for their sales promotions in various places within the store and tried to ensure that customers were well-informed and could buy their favorite commodities in a more flexible way. Furthermore, the store trained and tested frontline service personnel in advance to ensure that a professional and accurate service would be provided for the customers.
Besides thematic sales promotions, and based on the stock feedback since the implementation of its new policy, Sanya Duty Free Store increased the stock of commodities priced from RMB 5,000 to RMB 8,000, especially the stock of watches, and at the same time increased the order proportion of best-selling cosmetics to guarantee adequate supply. To dispel consumers’ worries about the short supply of best-selling commodities, Sanya Duty Free Store attached great importance to the stock of besting-selling commodities and increased the stock of these commodities by 30% to 50%. “I made a shopping list before I came here. I was worried that some best-selling brands might be out of stock, but it seems that they have ensured adequate storage for the golden week so far.” According to many customers with shopping lists in their hands, the duty-free shopping trip was very fruitful and they successfully bought all their favorite commodities.
It was reported that in order to further meet the customers’ shopping needs, the newly increased area of 3,000 square meters of Sanya Duty Free Store was put into use before the festival, which enhanced its customer reception capacity. In the new business area, a separate customer service center was set up for the timely settlement and communication of customer complaints and to provide timely assistance, which was well recognized by the customers. The new customer service center, together with the two specific convenient service centers — the luggage depository and customer rest area in front of the duty free store, provided the customers with a good service experience. Furthermore, through the Security and Engineering Department, Sanya Duty Free Store carried out security inspections of fire-fighting equipment and large-scale equipment within the store before the festival and completed a comprehensive investigation into the potential safety hazards of customer facilities and the store. It helped to reduce customers’ waiting time by formulating temporary emergency measures, limiting and leading customer flows.
The series of effective measures not only ensured the orderly operation of the duty free store, but also laid a foundation for the new sales record set by Sanya Duty Free Store. In addition, the peak sales performance once again confirmed the success of the Offshore Duty-free Policy and its adjustment, and demonstrated the fruitful results that the Government of Hainan Province has achieved in regulating the tourism market and improving service quality. According to the director of the Sanya Duty Free Store, there will be multiple sales promotions on Valentine’s Day and the sales performance still has the potential to further increase.