The breakthrough for inbound lies in 1.3 billion word-of-mouth recommendations! Shinjuku Isetan hosts "Beauty Night For Chinese Women"

 

How to Turn Foreign Customers into Repeat Buyers?

On the evening of Sunday, September 13th, cheerful Chinese conversation could be heard from the cafe on the B2 floor Beauty Apothecary of Isetan Shinjuku, bustling with Japanese customers. An event was being held here to introduce products to career women of Chinese descent living in Japan.

Isetan Beauty Apothecary is a floor dedicated to supporting women's beauty and health, featuring a curated selection of natural cosmetics and foods from around the world. It is beloved as a "theme park for beauty and health," boasting one of Japan's top-tier product selections.

However, even at Isetan Shinjuku, which has seen a surge of foreign visitors in recent years, the number of Chinese customers visiting the Beauty Apothecary on the B2 floor remains relatively low. For Chinese consumers, cosmetics from Western global brands represent status. "Organic cosmetics" have not gained traction; in fact, the very concepts of "organic" and "natural" remain largely unfamiliar in this market.

Given this background, the event's purpose was not to drive bulk purchases by Chinese visitors, but to create a system where customers would actively take an interest and make purchases based on their appreciation for the carefully curated product lineup and quality offered by Isetan, a department store representing Japan.

Since the start of this year, department stores have seen sales skyrocket due to the influence of so-called "bulk-purchasing Chinese tourists." However, amidst this inbound boom, Isetan's mid-to-long-term goal is not to attract temporary, bulk-purchasing tourists, but rather foreign visitors who resonate with the products, selection, and services offered by department stores and become repeat customers. The starting point for this event was the challenge: "Rather than indiscriminately attracting foreign visitors to our stores, we want to segment them by income and preferences to effectively draw them in."

 

Word-of-mouth diffusion among Chinese residents in Japan

Here, Isetan focused on the "enormous word-of-mouth influence of Chinese residents in Japan."
The majority of Chinese visitors to Japan create shopping lists before their trip, and these lists are heavily influenced by "word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and acquaintances."
Chinese residents in Japan, who live here and know the truly excellent Japanese products, are a trusted and aspirational information source for prospective visitors. The information they share daily on Chinese-language SNS is overwhelmingly supported by mainland Chinese consumers, based on the view that "information from residents is highly credible" and "products selected from a Chinese perspective seem likely to match my lifestyle." Data confirms that Chinese visitors to Japan are highly likely to purchase products shared by Chinese residents on SNS, with 41% referencing SNS word-of-mouth when creating their shopping lists for the trip.

This event invited 30 career women of Chinese descent residing in Japan, aged 20s to 40s and hailing from regions across mainland China, from north to south, who are interested in natural products. They were introduced to six recommended Beauty Apothecary products and given the opportunity to touch and try them.
The venue was the organic cafe located within the floor. Rather than a one-sided lecture by the organizers, the event fostered a relaxed atmosphere where participants could naturally converse with each other while enjoying tea and sweets, accompanied by the meticulous service characteristic of a department store.

The event sparked lively comments like, "I didn't know such products existed!" and "I want to bring my Chinese friends next time!" Through this experience, the Chinese career women residing in Japan deepened their understanding and knowledge of "organic" and "natural" products.

Immediately after the event ended, participants eagerly shared product images and floor introductions on social media.
Among the attendees was a power blogger with over 20,000 high-quality followers on social media. Their firsthand word-of-mouth recommendations were instantly shared and spread among their followers in mainland China.

Furthermore, the event report was featured as a PR article on Weibo, China's largest social media platform. As a result, starting from the 30 invited Chinese residents in Japan, we achieved credible information reach to a total of 600,000 Chinese people interested in Japan.

 

The Future of Department Store-Quality Inbound Strategies

Additionally, a major outcome of the event was that participants spontaneously engaged in discussions about attracting Chinese visitors to the Beauty Apothecary. This led to the provision of numerous inbound strategies clients could implement immediately.

The strategy implemented by Isetan Shinjuku's Beauty Apothecary—treating Chinese residents in Japan as influencers and leveraging their word-of-mouth—demonstrated immediate effectiveness after the event. Reports indicate Chinese visitors were spotted on the floor the following week, actively searching for products while referencing images from social media.

Rather than simply purchasing products at stores visited by tour buses, the process is: "Create a shopping list based on personal interests using blogs and word-of-mouth as references → Visit the department store → Experience authentic Japanese quality and service, leading to satisfied purchases → Foster repeat business."

We take pride in having successfully implemented this event as the first step in building such a system.
We hope Isetan Shinjuku will become a new hotspot for Chinese visitors seeking products and services that truly fit their needs.

Next time, Ms. Kyoko Kawaragi of the Mitsukoshi Isetan Group, Ms. Yoko Iizuka of Dentsu Inc.'s Mitsukoshi Isetan Sales Division, and I will discuss the key points of this event in a roundtable discussion.