Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail partners with Jessica’s Secret to bring back its popular cashback rebate program

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for travel retail to capitalise on the influx of travelling shoppers visiting airport duty-free. While the surge in Chinese outbound tourism isn’t fresh news, the numbers are still staggering; Chinese outbound trips increased by 15% to reach 150 million in 2018 and total outbound expenditures amounted to US$120 billion. With 84% of Chinese outbound travellers making purchases at airport retailers, it’s no surprise that brands are jostling for a position to capture Chinese outbound tourism expenditure, making this channel a critical battleground.

In particular, with the rise of Chinese fully independent travellers (FIT) or those who research and plan their own itinerary, travel retailers are facing unparallel challenges to compete for travellers’ attention and engagement in order to recruit new shoppers and get them to actually spend more. Rapid changes in consumer purchasing behaviour, the evolving eCommerce industry and the increasing role of digitalisation have played a pivotal role in reshaping how brands identify the right kind of strategies to create a frictionless shopping experience to drive revenue from this lucrative audience.

And that’s where Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail - with one of the most comprehensive and unique premium portfolio of wines and spirits in the industry - knew it needed to explore creative ways to deliver a convenient and seamless experience throughout its customer’s travel journey, connecting the dots beyond gates to create genuine engagement and exploration.

To counter these challenges and to engage with Chinese shoppers well in advance of their departures, Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail turned to CruiSo Digital Solutions to familiarise themselves with how Chinese consumers planned and booked their travels in order to develop a clear roadmap on how to target them at key micro-moments throughout their travel planning journeys.

It was vital to understand that Chinese consumers expect a frictionless shopping experience built around convenience. More than 60% of Chinese travellers will do broad research on what to buy before travelling, make price comparisons, and ideally pay ahead of time, making them very savvy shoppers.

With its expertise in cross-border digital solutions, CruiSo Digital identified popular Chinese duty-free price comparison app, Jessica’s Secret, as the perfect partner to amplify Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail’s global travel digital footprints to reach Chinese travelling shoppers.

As part of the year-long partnership, Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail and Jessica’s Secret are bringing back their popular cash back rebate program that saw great success last Chinese New Year.

The rebate program, an initiative aimed to create a seamless online to offline experience, encourages users to sign up for the exclusive offers available on the Jessica’s Secret app. They can then make a purchase at a duty-free store at the airport, and then upload their receipt within the app as proof of purchase to receive the rebate offers.

The collaboration includes a revamped wine and spirits section with up-to-date product and pricing details and a dedicated Brand Zone section to drive awareness of the travel retail promotional rebate offers. Voucher ads on the Home Page and Destination Page were used to drive online rebates and push offline sales, while the same offer was extended to Alipay International, allowing for a greater reach of consumers to benefit from the partnership.

During its festive end-of-season campaign, sales tripled, successfully driving users from online to offline and back online again via the exclusive rebate program.

“We’re proud to be working with Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail and Jessica’s Secret on a category first partnership,” said CruiSo Digital Solutions director Cynthia Lau. “Our role as a digital agency has expanded to more than just using content to help drive brand awareness, but using content in a rather more dynamic and meaningful way to drive footfall and influence sales directly.”

Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail digital manager for APAC Janice Chan said, “We are always looking at ways to explore innovative technologies that enhance consumer journeys, which is why we are delighted to be partnering with Jessica’s Secret. The partnership will enable us to not only leverage the reach of the app but also to connect with Chinese travellers, in a meaningful way by tapping into an existing consumer behaviour and offering them content and offers to match.”

Jessica’s Secret CEO Mirko Wang added: “This is a very exciting time for Jessica’s Secret, as we continue to build our offering, which is why we are delighted to be partnering with Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail. We firmly believe that the strength of its product portfolio will add great value to all Chinese travellers using Jessica’s Secret.”

This content was sponsored by CruiSo Digital Solutions Limited