CHINA. China Duty Free Group (CDFG) today opened a new downtown store in Shanghai, a key step in the fast-growing travel retailer’s sustained expansion programme.
The Shanghai shop is the fifth downtown store that CDFG has opened on the Mainland this year, following other inaugurations in Qingdao, Xiamen, Dalian and Beijing.
CDFG said that the rapid development of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative has boosted inbound business and leisure travel to Shanghai, to the benefit of the city’s duty free sector.
“As a centre of the economy, finance, trade and science and technology in China, Shanghai attracts tourists from all over the world through its unique combination of resources and urban charm,” CDFG noted. “At the same time, it also shoulders the heavy responsibility of meeting the shopping needs of foreign tourists and stimulating buying. In this context, it is imperative to establish a world-class downtown duty free retail sector.”
The two-storey 875sq m store is located within the Shangyue West Plaza in the Pudong New Area, home to the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and several world-class business parks.
The CDFG store offers a wide range of perfume, cosmetics, sunglasses, watches, bags and other duty free goods, including a host of internationally renowned brands.
Importantly, in addition to providing in-store purchases for airport pick-up by overseas visitors, the store also allows Chinese travellers to pre-order their goods downtown and collect upon departure from Pudong and Hongqiao airports.
“Through enhancing the available shopping time and adding more convenient delivery methods, we are enhancing the duty free shopping experience of domestic and foreign tourists alike,” said CDFG.
The new store will complement CDFG’s expansion, the retailer said, while enhancing Shanghai’s commercial image and creating a new downtown duty free benchmark. CDFG said that the new store will benefit from the resources of parent company China International Travel Service in continuing to raise the quality of travel-related services in China.
The Shanghai opening continues a series of breakthroughs in recent years, the retailer noted. CDFG pointed out that it now has major airport retail operations at Hong Kong International, Beijing Capital International, Shanghai Pudong and Hongqiao airports, and the new Beijing Daxing International Airport (set to be inaugurated on 30 September and opened for business late the following month), as well as opening new offshore duty free shops on Hainan Island – Haikou Riyue Plaza Duty Free Shop and Qionghai Bo’ao Duty Free Shop – earlier this year.
The expansion of its store network on the Mainland is complemented by new stores in Hong Kong (just opened this week) and Macao (coming soon), CDFG said. “In the future, we will continue to leverage our tourism resource advantages through our parent company to continuously strengthen our core capabilities and upgrade the duty free sector to a new level,” it pledged.
