China Recovery
In January, online shopping accounted for 10% of China Duty Free Group’s total sales, in February it contributed 25% of turnover, and in March that figure rose to 50%. “We reacted very quickly, we made the decision very quickly to temporarily close the stores because there was too much exposure with the people coming through. Our first priority was to protect our staff.”
Online shopping soars
Chen thinks that shopping habits will change after the coronavirus crisis – namely, the shift to online shopping. “We send our customers pre-ordering promotion information by phone or email. Online shopping will be very popular. It’s very interesting to see the jump in online shopping.” In January, online shopping accounted for 10% of CDFG’s total sales, in February it contributed 25% of turnover, and in March that figure rose to 50%.
New store openings
Chen has good reason to be confident about the future. During the past year the company has opened many new stores in airports such as Beijing Daxing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. But he added that opportunities to open more stores in China are “very rare” right now. “If the government will allow us to open, we will. We are waiting to see what they say,” he said.
Charles Chen is confident CDFG will recover the losses experienced during the lockdown period
However, opportunities lie further afield. “We have a lot of plans for overseas. Many Chinese are traveling within South East Asia. We had a lot of plans for that but things slowed down since COVID-19. South East Asia is an easy place for travelers to visit, there is no time difference and travel time is short.” Chen revealed a gradual shift in Chinese travelers’ attitudes to long-haul travel. “For Europe and North America, some years ago, Chinese liked to visit there but things have slowed down in terms of Chinese visiting. Gradually now Chinese people want to relax to enjoy their holidays. Even my friends are looking to go to a place to relax the same way the Europeans do,” he said. As for possible future store openings, CDFG is “very interested” in Laos, Thailand, Japan and Singapore. “Our priority is downtown stores and then airports. Everything depends on the situation with COVID-19 in the West. I’m hoping things will be under control by the second semester of this year.” Chen concluded with a message of hope for the beleaguered travel retail industry. “We should be confident for the future. People still want to travel, they still want to spend money, especially for Chinese. The way people will shop will change. “After we discuss this internally, there could be a home delivery option under the current coronavirus condition.”