SOUTH KOREA. The Shilla Duty Free’s mobile product review platform Shilla Tipping has marked its first anniversary, hitting over 30 million visits in the period. Shilla is set to extend the reach of the Tipping platform with the launch of Shilla TV live streaming later this month (see below).
Launched in September 2018, Tipping has quickly become a highly ranked beauty review and social media shopping platform among millennials in Korea. According to The Shilla Duty Free, the platform averages about 80,000 to 120,000 users a day.
To date, Tipping has received more than 120,000 reviews for 30,000 products. More than 40,000 reviews have led to product purchases by other customers, and one of the Shilla Tipping members has generated sales of about KRW230 million (US$190,000) through her reviews.
As reported, members of The Shilla Duty Free can leave product reviews with photos or videos and receive rewards up to 3% of the sales generated from their reviews.
The company said: “With its increasing popularity, Tipping is engaging the attention of the industry as a powerful marketing channel that enables interactions with the duty-free retail market’s core customer base of millennials and women.”
The Shilla Duty Free has partnered with brand houses such as Amorepacific, LG Household & Health Care, The Estée Lauder Companies and L’Oréal Group, plus small-to-medium-sized Korea-based beauty brands such as Milk Touch, CNP Cosmetics and I’m From.
Shilla highlighted the opportunity for smaller brands to use Tipping to scale up their marketing. It said that brands that have worked with Tipping through ‘Brand Week’ events achieved at least a double-digit increase in sales during these events. The Brand Week schedule is almost full until the end of this year.
Another key feature of Tipping, it noted, is the dedicated team of content creators, recruited and managed by the duty free retailer.
The Shilla Duty Free selected 150 talents for Tipping from “micro creators” with 10,000 to 50,000 subscribers each. It has been supporting them through a variety of means including preferential brand sponsorship opportunities, invitations to real-world events by brands, duty free product sponsorships, financial support for content production and shopping incentives.
With the support of The Shilla Duty Free, these creators have experienced a surge of up to five times in subscribers. Shilla said that Tipping is “going viral as a creator academy among people who dream of becoming star creators”.
As noted above, The Shilla Duty Free’s live streaming service Shilla TV will also be launched in late September – and will be the first of its kind among Korean duty free retailers.
Shilla TV is a Tipping-based live streaming service platform that allows users to purchase products from The Shilla Online Duty Free at discounted prices while watching the Tipping creators’ live streaming video featuring product reviews or beauty-related topics. Shilla said: “This service reflected the traits of millennials who are used to communicating with creators and more likely to consider their reviews in making purchase decisions.”
In addition, The Shilla Duty Free is marking the first anniversary of Tipping with events including a prize lottery and offering ‘Tipping Rewards’ redeemable for purchases.
Tipping was launched last year to help consumers find product information in a “hassle-free way”. Members of The Shilla Duty Free can leave product reviews with photos or videos and receive rewards up to 3% of the sales generated from their reviews.
The retailer said: “Shilla Tipping has quickly grasped millennials with strengths such as providing vivid product information with photos and videos, making the mobile shopping experience hassle-free without requiring the use of multiple mobile applications and incorporating the element of fun into shopping.”
