The Unlawyer

Aviation regulations require most passengers to check in for their flights at least three hours before the published departure time. Some airports, like Singapore’s Changi Airport, are quite efficient in this aspect, leaving travellers with plenty of time to kill. Many pass the time by shopping at the airport duty-free, an opportunity coveted by many retailers. As a result, at least one duty-free retailer has found success at Singapore’s new Changi Airport Terminal 3: DFS welcomes fashion success at Changi T3. Another duty-free retailer at the same airport identifies its best customer: Chinese become best beauty visitors at Changi.

How much do Asia-Pacific duty-free consumers spend while abroad? This tantalizing insight from the Tax Free World Association’s research says the Japanese are the big spenders, averaging about EUR 994 on purchases from all duty-free store formats.

You might be interested in reading this brief profile of one of the founders of DFS, the the very private Chuck Feeney: The quiet philantrophist. This duty-free retailer has since been sold to French luxury house LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, at the end of an acrimonious battle between the four founders of DFS that nonetheless left all of them billionaires.

Notwithstanding the Philippines’ low income per capita, Filipinos are nonetheless fond of branded goods. In so far as branded apparel is concerned, what are the luxury consumer brands Filipinos love the most? Here is the answer:

“The top ten designer brands Filipinos buy are Calvin Klein (40%) followed by Ralph Lauren (38%), Diesel (30%), DKNY (23%) and Celine (20%). The next five are Gucci (16%), Giorgio Armani (12%), Louis Vuitton (11%), Christian Dior (10%) and Chanel (9%).”

The AC Nielsen study, entitled Consumers and Designer Brands: A Global Nielsen Report [PDF file - Ed.], on which this news story is based, can be downloaded from their website.

The same news report said that Filipinos preferred “casual classics,” an indication perhaps of the conservative fashion preferences of most Filipino consumers of these designer labels. Or, it could also be that most Filipino consumers of these brands cannot as of yet afford the more formal, and therefore more expensive, fashion lines, preferring the more affordable bridge lines of these labels.

Now then, what luxury brands do Filipinos aspire to own? From the same BusinessWorld article:

“When it comes to accessories like bags and small leather goods, Louis Vuitton is the brand most Filipinos would prefer to buy if money were no object.

“According to the findings, the appeal of Louis Vuitton was strongest in Asia, with the world’s top 10 markets that aspire to the French brand hailing from the region, led by the Philippines (42%), Hong Kong, and Singapore (both 40%).

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“After Louis Vuitton, the other brands Filipinos aspired to own were Gucci (39%), Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren (both 34%), Giorgio Armani (27%), and Prada (26%).”

The same study also revealed that 41 percent of its Philippine-based respondents agree that designer brands are of significantly higher quality than standard brands. Of significant note was the 62 percent figure chalked up by the very same Filipinos who proclaimed their support for home-grown domestic labels.

The Suyen clothing group, known for its Bench family of apparel brands, has seen it fit in recent years to diversify and bring in a brace of foreign labels, the latest being the Canadian La Senza lingerie brand: Is lingerie all about pleasing the man—or the woman herself?

“According to Bryan Lim of Suyen Corp., its arrival in the country is just right as Filipinas who used to have conservative tastes are becoming more aware of and willing to try new things, including new styles of undergarments.”

Suyen is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity, having branched out its Bench Body line of male and female undergarments from the parent Bench shop into a string of standalone stores. Most lingerie in the Philippines is typically sold either in department stores or via home selling businesses, with independent shops taking a small percentage of the trade.

Elsewhere in retail, Apple has signed several non-exclusive deals with a few more mobile telcos to distribute its iPhone smartphone, including one with Globe Telecom to sell this hot phone in the Philippines. Predictably enough, many Philippine bloggers are excited at the prospect but what I am interested in is will Globe hand over a chunk of subscriber fees generated by iPhone-equipped subscribers, as is the case with the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s deal with AT&T?

Globe officials say they will launch the iPhone in the fourth quarter of the year.

US and European retailers are interested in expanding their business outside their home countries and especially in India, but many may find the going a little too rough for their taste: India beckons, but not for the faint of heart. What are some of the pitfalls foreign retailers face on the subcontinent?

“Regulations restrict foreign retailers’ access to consumers in India, whose retail landscape is currently dominated by small family-run stores. Foreign operators that sell only their own branded goods can own up to 51 per cent of a joint venture with a local partner.

“As for multiple-brand retailers, they are allowed only to manage wholesale operations or offer back-end support to Indian retailers.”

Philippine consumers are fairly used to what the retail trade – in cooperation with credit card issuers like the Bank of the Philippine Islands and Citibank – calls zero-interest deals: purchases of big-ticket items like appliances and electronics that can be paid of in installments without paying interest. Indian retailers are taking this idea one step further: Interest-free loans for shoes and groceries are retailers’ latest offer.

“While loans that run in the mid to high thousands for home furniture to consumer electronic items are fairly common, retailers say the loan size could go so low that consumers could fund even their monthly grocery purchases with loans. “The ability to convert a one-time investment into an over-a-period-plan always improves the purchasing capability of people,” says Muralidhara Kadaba, president and chief executive for finance and travel, Reliance. “You make customers aspire for things they otherwise may have postponed or might settle for something that maybe compromising.””