Unsurprisingly, as passenger traffic and visitor numbers plummeted during the pandemic, Changi Airport retail stores also saw a sharp drop in sales.
Passenger traffic is still below 5% of its pre-pandemic level and retail sales are down 74% this year.
While Jewel Changi Airport remains an attractive shopping and entertainment complex, things were not as rosy as they were before Covid-19.
Jewelers with more than 280 brands and January retail stores were struggling to meet their sales targets. This corresponds to the evaluations of sales representatives at eight of the 17 branches.
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A retail manager for a fashion store even said that “a lot of people come here to eat and see the waterfall instead of shopping.”
Changi Airport expands its online platform
To help airport retailers reach non-travelers in Singapore, Changi Airport Group has expanded its offering on its iShopChangi online shopping platform.
Customers can now choose from around 17,000 items on the iShopChangi platform, more than three times as many offers as before the outbreak.
In June, Changi launched the Changi Eats grocery delivery service. 40 brands now offer more than 800 foods, drinks and snacks on the platform.
The number of orders received has almost quintupled since its launch.
The group also announced that they will be launching a series of experiences and activities during the upcoming holiday season.
These experiences and activities include glampcations and glamping at Jewel Changi Airport, as well as educational family camps at Changi Experience Studio.
The brand new Changi Party Village across from Jewel Changi, Terminal 3 and the newly constructed Terminal 4 will host winter attractions, dinosaurs and Tokidoki for all ages.
The pivot could have happened months ago
This is not the first time that a shopping center has been connected. On the one hand, CapitaLand Malls launched two online platforms in June: eCapitaMall and Capita3Eats (pronounced as “Capita’s Delights”).
eCapitaMall is an organized digital shopping center with merchandise from retailers, most of which also operate CapitaLand malls in Singapore, while Capita3Eats is Singapore’s premier shopping center operated grocery ordering platform.
In addition, Marina Square incorporated Lazada as the first shopping center and, together with its tenants, created a virtual shopping center in the app.
Some brands are Benjamin Barker, Island Shop, King Koil, Pororo Park SG and Kiztopia, which already have their own virtual storefronts at LazMall.
As a result, eCapitaMall and Capita3Eats have shown results in increasing tenant income, with CapitaLand seeing a recovery in all business areas in the third quarter of 2020.
More than 2,000 tenants were integrated on the three platforms, an increase of 25% compared to the previous quarter. In addition, eCapitaVoucher sales in Singapore have grown by over 200% since the start of the year.
This begs the question of why Changi Airport Group now only connects to its online retailers instead of accessing them a few months ago.
iShopChangi has always been an existing shopping portal that you can turn to.
Passenger traffic is a big part of their business and travel has been stagnant for over six months, so they could have acted faster.
This could have increased some of the impact on your retail business if the turnaround had come earlier.
Source of selected image: HardwareZone / departures