The "winter" is here, and well-known duty-free shops can't hold it? There are nearly 20 closed stores here

　　The "winter" is here!

Sales fell by more than 90% year-on-year...... Well-known duty-free shops can't hold it?

There are nearly 20 closed stores here...

　　Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many countries around the world are still implementing entry restrictions, which not only affects the tourism industry of various countries, but also makes the duty-free shop industry suffer a huge impact.

Recently, the well-known Japanese department store "Takashimaya" announced that it will formally close its duty-free shop in Tokyo.

　　Shinjuku, Tokyo is one of Tokyo's most prosperous business districts.

The 11th floor of the famous Takashimaya Department Store in Japan is a duty-free shop specially opened for tourists visiting Japan.

Recently, Takashimaya announced that it would completely close the duty-free shop in the city at the end of this month. The reporter found that many brands have withdrawn or are cleaning up. There are only a handful of customers in the shop, and it seems to be very depressed.

　　In 2017, along with Japan’s national policy of attracting overseas tourists, Takashimaya, an old traditional department store, followed the trend and opened its own duty-free shop in the city. It adopted the business model of “buying in stores and picking up goods at the airport”. Favor.

In March of this year, Japan began to restrict the entry of tourists after the duty-free shop was completely closed. Although some counters tried to reopen afterwards, overall sales from March to August fell by 92.7% compared with the same period last year.

In the long run, it is still unclear when visitors to Japan will be able to enter. Under the pressure of high rents and labor costs, Takashimaya had to make the decision to close the store.

As for whether new duty-free shops will be reopened in other regions in the future, the person in charge said that they will make another judgment based on the future situation.

　　Not only Takashimaya, but also the duty-free shops in the city operated by another veteran department store Mitsukoshi Isetan are also experiencing an unprecedented winter.

The main reason is the single profit channel, which is basically driven by the consumption of tourists visiting Japan.

In addition, many ordinary merchants in Japan have introduced tax-free services, which also diverted the source of pure duty-free shops.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, not only Tokyo, but also many places in Japan such as Okinawa and Fukuoka have successively closed down duty-free shops.

Up to now, nearly 20 duty-free shops dedicated to tourists throughout Japan have completely closed their stores or have announced plans to close stores.

The duty-free services of general department stores and drugstores have also been affected, especially some stores located near tourist attractions have experienced a sharp decline in sales.

　　In such a difficult situation, Japanese duty-free shops have adopted a variety of methods to help themselves. On the one hand, some duty-free shops have begun to increase cross-border e-commerce sales in an attempt to compensate for the loss of physical stores; on the other hand, many duty-free shops have turned to tap the shopping needs of local Japanese consumers. For example, some stores introduce niche brands that can only be bought in local cities into Tokyo and hold promotional activities; others simply try to transform their business formats and transform most of their stores into an "anime world", focusing on animation peripherals. Product sales hope to attract local animation fans to buy at tax-included prices.