Available to travelers in San Francisco, the Mini Program provides a localized assortment for the mobile customer.
SAN FRANCISCO – DFS Group, the world’s leading luxury travel retailer, has launched its first Mini Program on WeChat. Introduced by WeChat in January 2017, Mini Programs are applications within WeChat that allow developers to create rich experiences inside China’s largest mobile social communications platform. DFS Group is one of the early adopters to utilize this platform to create a Mini Program for commerce, providing customers with an opportunity to discover and pre-order products based on their locations.
“Here at DFS we believe in providing our customers with a luxurious and delightful shopping experience throughout their customer journey,” said Mike Osorio, DFS Group Region President Americas, Pacific Islands and Japan. “The WeChat Mini Program allows us to extend this experience to a platform that is integral to our customers’ day-to-day lives, while introducing them to exclusive, local and limited edition products that can only be found at DFS.”
Launched in San Francisco, WeChat users can use the mobile application’s Discover function to find the DFS Mini Program. They can then preview and pre-order over 300 products from across DFS luxury categories. Each Mini Program is specifically tailored to shoppers in that location, featuring renowned Napa Valley wines from San Francisco, along with the most popular and desired products across multiple categories. Customers can easily pre-order and pay for their purchases using WeChat Pay and pick up at DFS, San Francisco International Airport.
“We are proud to partner with DFS Group to provide an innovative platform to meet their customers’ shopping needs,” said Juliet Zhu, Head of WeChat Marketing, Tencent Holdings Limited. “Mini Programs offer WeChat users the flexibility and adaptability to get connected with retailers and experiences they love and it’s exciting to see how DFS is bringing this technology into the travel retail space.”
Owned and developed by Tencent, WeChat (also known as Weixin in China) is one of the most popular messaging apps in Asia, especially in China, with an aggregate monthly active user base of 963 million as at June 2017.
Currently, DFS offers the Mini Program application at DFS, San Francisco International Airport and will roll out the localized mobile shopping experience to other DFS locations including T Galleria by DFS, Hawaii; DFS, Los Angeles International Airport; DFS, John F. Kennedy International Airport and DFS, Hawaii Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in the coming months.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
