A new shop-and-collect eCommerce platform that claims to be travel retail’s first membership-based cross-border service, GDFS Club, will launch a duty-free shop in Hong Kong in October.
Devised by international supply chain and logistics firm GDFS Travel Retail, the club offers consumers the chance to buy high-end products from duty-free and overseas outlets worldwide. With the company handling international logistics and goods clearance, and covering customs duties and taxes, it can offer its club members the benefit of duty-free prices when ordering online.
Other outlets are earmarked to open in mainland China this year, in cities such as as Kunming in Yunnan province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Baoding and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province.
Members will be offered discounts of up to 30 per cent on prices in China for skincare and luxury products, reports Frontier, and they can pre-order products from co-operating airport duty-free shops.
Services include sea and air shipping, logistics and overseas warehousing for more than 80 products in 12 countries.
GDFS Club has 20,000 members, most of them in China. They pay HK$118 (US$15) a year to activate the service, and unlock eligibility to extra rewards such as financial incentives, and holiday and consumer consultants. The club has an express delivery network covering China, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the US. Product categories include beauty and cosmetics, fragrances, fashion, leather goods, accessories and electronics.
GDFS is a subsidiary of Hong Duty Free International, which services travel retailers in airport duty-free shops in Asia Pacific and other distribution channels. It works with more than 20 airports, duty-free shops and brand speciality stores in Asia Pacific as well as with Hilton Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Starwood Hotels.