Welcome to the Destination Gold Coast Alipay E-Shop.
Helping Gold Coast attract more high value Chinese guests.
We would like to introduce you to an exciting new opportunity, brought to you by Destination Gold Coast. As part of DGC’s longstanding partnership with Alipay, designed to help Gold Coast tourism operators be successful in the very important Chinese market, we are launching an e-commerce store on Alipay, enabling customers to purchase Gold Coast tourism experiences from directly within this most trusted app.
While we are unfortunately unable to welcome international Chinese guests to Gold Coast during the ever important Chinese New Year period (mid-February, 2021), our domestic Chinese customer base of over 1.2m remains a lucrative opportunity for Gold Coast.
We know Chinese consumers, even those who have been living in Australia for years, have a strong preference to use the apps they are familiar with from China. By providing tourism experiences to purchase within Alipay, we are making it as easy as possible for Chinese guests to visit your business.
Of course, what we do now for the domestic Chinese audience will be completely applicable to international Chinese guests, as borders begin to re-open. In that way, you can consider E-Shop as a way to future proof your business for long-term success in the Chinese market.
Flying Tiger is proud to be the delivery partner for the Gold Coast Alipay E-Shop. We’ve created a handy FAQ below, answering all your questions. But if you want more information or to discuss E-Shop in more detail, please contact us directly.
FAQs
What is E-Shop?
E-Shop is an e-commerce store that sits within the Alipay app. It allows Chinese consumers thinking about visiting Gold Coast, or perhaps already here, to purchase tourism experiences and related products straight from within the app.
How much does E-Shop cost?
Destination Gold Coast is providing E-Shop for Gold Coast tourism operators, at no cost. This even includes translation of your product content from English to Chinese. The only cost for you to sell on E-Shop is a 5.7% transaction fee - a very attractive rate when compared with many other distribution channels.
How are bookings or purchases managed?
When an Alipay user purchases your product in E-Shop, you receive an automatic notification, including all the customer’s details. You can then either contact the customer directly, or wait for them to contact you, quoting a unique reference number, to confirm specifics of the booking (e.g. dates). In this way, you could think of selling on E-Shop as being similar to selling on other voucher-based platforms.
The E-Shop offer real-time booking confirmation, or inventory management?
E-Shop does not allow customers to select dates and times for tourism experiences. Instead, customers are essentially purchasing a voucher, which they will then redeem directly with you.
E-Shop also does not integrate into your inventory management system. If you wish to sell a physical product, it is important you allocate inventory to E-Shop which you will have availability to fulfill.
How will Chinese customers know about the Gold Coast E-Shop?
Destination Gold Coast is working closely with both Alipay and Tourism Events Queensland to promote both our destination and E-Shop to domestic Chinese consumers ahead of Chinese New Year. We want to ensure that Gold Coast is seen as an attractive destination for Chinese guests to visit next year and to encourage spend across the entire range of tourism and related businesses. More details of our Chinese New Year campaign will be shared after Christmas. You can read more about TEQ’s domestic Chinese campaign here.
How do I participate?
Destination Gold Coast is partnering with Alipay marketing partner, Flying Tiger, to set-up and operate our E-Shop. The team at Flying Tiger will walk you through the incredibly easy set-up process, starting by registering your interest here.