(Yicai Global) Oct. 12 -- Chinese duty-free retailers are moving online to drum up sales, as footfall at their airport-based brick-and-mortar shops remains low due to the pandemic, and they are able to win over customers with sizeable discounts, the Beijing Daily reported today.

All of duty-free giant China Duty Free Group’s subsidiaries have set up their own online shopping channels, the report said. Some have also launched platforms targeting different regions such as Beijing, Shanghai and southern Hainan province.

“Duty-free shops have a distinct price advantage as they have lower rents and storage costs than most stores,” said Bai Wenxi, deputy director of China Enterprise Capital Union. With only a limited number of outlets, the transition to online is the future, he added.

CDF-Sunrise Duty Free’s online shop, for instance, is selling Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Corrector for just CNY382 (USD53), while the same 50 milliliter tube costs CNY820 (USD114) in shopping malls and the US cosmetics firm’s store on Alibaba Group Holding’s e-marketplace Tmall.

China Duty Free had 20 million subscribers to its WeChat mini program ‘CDF Membership’ last year, the firm said in its annual report. As of June 30, one of its main online platforms CDF Membership Hainan’s daily sales more than doubled from the beginning of the year, it said in its semi-annual report.

Chinese department store operator Wangfujing Group, which was granted a duty-free license in June 2020, said earlier that it will carry out both online and offline retail.

Editor: Kim Taylor