LATIN AMERICAS ROUNDUP
well as the cleaning up of the city’s downtown commercial district,” Dalmasso continues. “In the last few months we’ve
also established hotels, restaurants and shopping centres to promote Ciudad Del Este and the region and attract high profile events such as conventions and fairs.” The city’s previous wild west
The retailer landscape in Paraguay’s Ciudad Del Este is changing irrevocably.
Argentina-headquartered London Supply, which is gearing up for the 2018 reveal of its new Río Gallegos free zone duty free complex in southern Patagonia, is also proactively using social media channels to boost awareness and drive business to existing locations.
TRBusiness
‘anything goes’ reputation is well documented, but Dalmasso adds that today, the illegal traders – or sacoleiros – have been replaced by up-front retailers and this is largely driven by the big shopping centres and department stores.
Evolving consumer Dalmasso also reports a paradigm shift when it comes to consumer demographics. “As the retailer landscape has
goal of reversing the consumer mindset that Paraguay is a country where you can only buy fake goods.” Ciudad Del Este is the poster child
for change and is well on the way to re-establishing itself as an above- board shopping destination, as part of the central government’s long- term transformation plan. “The main avenue has been
beautified and a proper street vendors market constructed, as
Crossing the digital frontier
Duty free operators across the region are pushing new boundaries where digital connectivity is concerned.
In Paraguay, Cellshop is exploring new omni-channel options and Dalmasso reports that its website currently gets more than one million views per month, with regional bloggers also using it as a resource tool to check out the latest product deals. “People can order online and while this
isn’t our core business, we are seeing an increase in website traffic,” according to Dalmasso. “What’s interesting is that Brazilians, for example, look at the website and then will come to the store to purchase as they want the complete service experience.” Argentina-headquartered London
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Supply, which is gearing up for the 2018 reveal of its new Río Gallegos free zone duty free complex in southern Patagonia, is also proactively using social media channels to boost awareness and drive business to existing locations. Meanwhile in Brazil, Dufry’s local
website generates 3.3m page views per month and its app-based loyalty programme, RED by Dufry, is also gaining ground. According to Gustavo Fagundes,
General Manager, Brazil and Bolivia (pictured below), the programme generates in excess of 9% of the company’s duty free sales and five per cent of duty paid sales (correct as of June 2017). “The initiatives that we
introduced last year [through to] today, such as our Brazil loyalty programme, RED by Dufry, Reserve & Collect, new shop concepts such as destination stores and Travel Star for traveller- relevant brands, as well as a more close relationship with suppliers, shows that we are on the right track,” he says. Website pre-ordering is also picking
up with orders accounting for over 9% of arrival sales and more than 6% of duty free sales (HY 2017). Experience and innovation, including
omnichannel, “must keep on happening”, according to Fagundes, and the November 2017 opening of its New Generation store in Cancun, which includes extensive implementation of digital applications, is ushering in the next wave of hi-tech retail operations.
MARCH 2018
changed, so has the clientele. We are seeing fewer and fewer people come in search of fake merchandise and the new Ciudad Del Este visitor has many faces, from the tourist who wants a specific product to Brazilian millennials looking for tennis shoes that are 40%cheaper than at home,” he observes. “The average buyer profile has
also changed. Today, the majority of customers are middle or upper- middle class family members, from grandparents through to
grandchildren, who have money to spend.” Argentinian and Brazilian shoppers
aside, Dalmasso also reports increasing numbers of international travellers as Paraguay ups its tourism game on the international stage. “Our reputation outside of
Paraguay is also helping attract new customers as our store offers something a little bit different from others,” he outlines.
Change in store Cellshop has a long-term
plan.The virtual doubling of its footprint in December 2017 to 8,000 sqm and a strategic focus on introducing an encyclopaedic selection of exclusively distributed European and North American brands, is an investment precursor to further double-digit sales increases in 2018 following +20% year-on-year growth for 2017. “Cellshop was also the most
visited department store in Ciudad Del Este last year, with an average of 6,500 to 7,000 visitors per day,” explains Dalmasso. “Saturday is a weekly high point,
touching as many as 13,000 visitors and, as one of the few locations open on Sundays, we’ve seen a massive upswing in foot traffic with in excess of 4,000 people through the doors.” «
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