Page 40 - EM Export Magazine Perfumery edition

R E P O R T

About 60% of Chinese consumers, in 2020, used cross-border by sea and air also dropped in 2022. That said, many, such as
e-commerce platforms, led by Tmall International and JD Martin Moody and Bernard Arnault have noted that Chinese
International, according to Iresearch. This is not surprising shoppers are shifting purchases to the mainland and Macau.
considering 78% of consumers in China report preferring
international beauty and personal care brands. Some online
stores, now popular amongst daigou, have written in Chinese
the words “Shipped from Overseas, Authenticity Guaranteed,”
because even the most price-sensitive daigou and/or consumer
worries about fake products and shoddy quality. According
to Daxue Consulting, cross-border and overseas websites/
apps seem to be taking the market share of daigou in China,
at least for the time being. Dedicated to providing easy access
through user-friendly websites/apps, these marketplaces are
gaining more consumer trust. And yet, daigou destinations are
flourishing again. Arnault noted that as the pandemic related
travel bans have been lifted, “In Macau, where [Mainland]
Chinese can now travel to, the change is quite spectacular.
The stores are full. It’s really come back at a very strong pace.”

“In Macau, the mainland Chinese are already back in force,”
says Martin Moody, who recently visited Duty Free Americas
(DFA) located in the Venetian. Duty Free Americas (DFA) is located in the Venetian Shopping
Mall. DFA’s Chief Executive Officer Jerome Falic spoke about
his store’s recent expansion. “For the first two to three years
MaCaU, anOthEr FaCtOr we had a horrible, horrible experience. We discussed closing
iMPaCtinG nEPaL? because it was really a rough time for us. We were far away and
Macau is officially known as the Macau Special Administrative we were very busy growing in the Americas. We also had the
Region of the People’s Republic of China. It used to be a colony wrong concepts in here. So I came over here and I said either
of Portugal until 1999, as the Chinese government assumed we’re going to close this or we’re going to make a big investment
formal sovereignty over Macau. The city is a famous gambling and make a go for it. And obviously I did the latter...After visiting
hub in Asia, and the gaming industry is by far the most here, I met with several companies, the main one being L’Oréal. I
important economic sector in the city. Due to the COVID-19 convinced them to work together on a project and they brought
pandemic, Macau saw a severe downturn in visitors in 2020, in a lot of their brands and helped me with the layout. I also
which had a devastating effect on the city’s economy. In 2022, approached other companies with other concepts. With that
the number of mainland Chinese visitor arrivals via land to big investment we turned the whole operation around from
Macau amounted to around 4.73 million, about 25 percent less being a major losing business to a very lucrative one. And from
than in the previous year. Visitor arrivals from mainland China there we continuously invested and brought in brands.”

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