Chinese shoppers at Shilla Duty Free rise after WeChat tie-up

Shilla Duty Free, South Korea’s second-largest duty-free operator in terms of sales, has seen a twofold jump in number of Chinese customers on its online mall following the introduction of WeChat Pay, the company said Monday.

According to the duty free operator, the number of customers who joined Shilla Duty Free’s Chinese online mall has surged as of July, compared to in March when it introduced WeChat Pay as one of its payment options. 

WeChat is China’s most popular mobile messaging app with a user base of more than one billion. WeChat Pay allows subscribers to make payments via their smartphones conveniently both online and offline. 

The amount that Chinese customers spent using the payment service has also jumped by 3.5 times in almost four months, according to the company. 

“Partnering with large businesses like WeChat has been very helpful for us in attracting new customers. We want to increase the number of Chinese customers by strengthening partnerships with various Chinese firms,” said a Shilla Duty Free official. 

Last month, the Korean firm introduced a new service called WeChat Pay Overseas Gift Pack, which directs customers on the WeChat app to its membership page. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)