Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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the credit card they want to use, that's problematic," said Puccia. Setting up in-store tax-rebate departments can be helpful too. Secondly, make sure there is free and easy access to Wi-Fi. People like to send pictures of purchase possibilities to all those friends and relatives back home for whom they are shopping, says Melody Kong, a Shanghai-based analyst for China Market Research Group. Merchants and landlords also need to know exactly who their customers are. Beverly Center marketing and sponsor- ship director Susan Vance says consul- tants helped her team identify Chinese students at Los Angeles universities as im- portant buyers — not only because many are luxury buyers in their own right, but also because numerous other people may visit them during their college career. Kong says younger consumers are eager to understand and experience the local culture, so goods that are only sold locally are a big hit. Take Japan's heated, musi- cal, self-flushing toilet seats, she says: This spring it seemed that almost every Chi- nese visitor to Okinawa went home with the latest model — "which is high-tech, a great user experience, and very expensive in China." It helps to first market to these shoppers by means of discounts and promotions on Chinese holidays, such as their New Year, Spring Festi- val and so on. People often travel over- seas for such holidays, Kong notes. Beverly Center courts tour buses by making sure there are always Chinese speakers on hand. "The tour buses don't book ahead; they sometimes call within 20 minutes and say, 'We're on our way,'" Vance said. "Some buses could be five people, some could be 25, some could be 100, and the learning experience there really has been qual- ity versus quantity: If a bus comes with four people, it might be more important than a bus with a hundred people." Internet and social media are cer- tainly important to the tech-savvy Chi- nese. For starters, a translated website is essential, says Gervois. Chinese shoppers like to plan ahead, so if any store lacks a Chinese website, they are J u n e 2 0 1 5 / S C T 37 Welcome mat Major department stores such as Galeries Lafayette, in Paris, or Harrods, in London, have long been on the must-see lists of Chinese tourists. Of late, though, malls outside such big cities are eager to take the initiative and catch the eye of these tourists. Bicester Village, a luxury outlet center in Oxfordshire, about an hour from London, uses Mandarin-speaking greet- ers, a currency-exchange service and on-the-spot tax refunds as just some of the ways it tries to make Chinese tour- ists feel welcome, according to Sophie Hadley, a spokeswoman for Value Retail Group, the mall's owner. But these tourists are hardly wander- ing in by mere chance. "Value Retail works with select marketing and PR agencies and tourism partners around the world to promote Bicester Village," Hadley said. The company recently announced a partnership with Ctrip, China's top online travel agency. In addi- tion, Bicester Village tries to lure visitors directly, through its Chic Travel portal (chicoutletshopping.com), which offers travel packages such as a £99 (about $150) shopping day from London that includes return tickets on a luxury coach, a 10 percent discount card, a shopping- collection service, lunch or dinner, and a £50 prepaid gift card. Value Retail is not content merely to attract international Chinese shop- pers, though. To serve the millions of Chinese who will not make it to Bicester Village or the company's eight other outlet villages in Europe this year, subsidiary Value Retail China opened a Chinese-Italian–themed vil- lage in historic Suzhou last year. The unit plans to open a second such vil- lage, near the Shanghai Disney Resort, next spring. But with a catchment area of some 330 million people within a three-hour drive, this may take more than a village. — BV P h O T O : N A N C Y N e W M A N P h O T O G R A P h Y N e x t s t o p : C h r i s t i a N L o u b o u t i N , o N a v e N u e M a t i g N o N , i N p a r i s Chinese shoppers like to plan ahead, so if any store lacks a Chinese website, they are unlikely to go to that store.