Reporting by David Hayes

FaSoLa Duty Free Shops – the retail arm of NAA Retailing Corporation – is enticing consumers with a bespoke shopping service following the reopening of more than 10 brand boutiques at Japan’s Narita International Airport.

Since August, the largest travel retailer at Narita Airport (FaSoLa runs 90 shops and boutiques accounting for more than 50% of Narita Airport’s total travel retail revenue) has been offering shopping by appointment to passengers at Terminal’s 1 and 2.

This covers 14 FaSoLa luxury boutiques featuring 10 individual brands.

Of the fourteen boutiques, four are located at Terminal 1 South Wing: Cartier, Gucci, Hermès and Tiffany & Co, and three at Terminal 1 North Wing: Bulgari, Salvatore Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta.

LIMITED SHOP SERVICES

At Terminal 2, seven luxury brands are offering the service: Cartier, Coach, Burberry, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hermès and Tiffany & Co.

Departing passengers are able to book appointments up to one month in advance and at least 24 hours before international departure flights.

“Although there are not as many customers as before, they are trying to offer an improved service to their customers,” commented Hiroomi Eguchi, Vice President in the Retail Operations Department of NAA’s Marketing Division.

As of September, around 30 international flight departures were operating from Narita Airport on a daily basis to major cities across the world, as the airport capitalises on a recovery pulse witnessed from July.

Severe travel restrictions in Japan have resulted in a 93% decrease year-on-year in overall passenger traffic covering the January-July period, which has placed a burden on shop operations.

In the seven-month period to July, 6.62 million international passengers used the airport. Of this, 2.91 million were foreigners, 2.66 million were Japanese and 1.04 million were transit passengers.

Most landside and airside shops closed in early April as Japan entered a strict lockdown, with FaSoLa permitted to run a small number of tax free shops on reduced hours.

“FaSoLa Duty Free Cosmetics and Perfumery, FaSoLa Duty Free Liquor and Tobacco, and some FaSoLa Tax Free shops in T1 and T2 remain open to offer our customers minimal essential services,” said Eguchi. “Brands operated by NAA Retailing, Japan Duty Free [Jatco] and JAL-DFS have decided to re-open some of their boutiques.”

As reported in the August issue, duty free sales were JPY67 billion/$603 million in full-year 2019, down by 14.8% compared with the previous year. TRBusiness has now learned that tax free sales declined by 7.6% year-on- year to JPY 47.3 billion.

For more on NAA Retailing, watch out for the October issue of TRBusiness.