Canadian retailers debate awareness campaign

Gavin Lipsith

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Border operators attending the twenty-third annual Frontier Duty Free Association convention discuss moves to increase awareness among Canadian travellers

Canadian border store operators are discussing ways to improve awareness of duty-free shops and entitlements among Canadian passengers travelling to the US. The proposal is intended to capitalise on the increasing number of Canadian travellers journeying south of the border to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate with the US dollar.

Traditionally US passengers travelling north have dominated traffic at most Canadian border stores, but the shifting exchange rates have encouraged more Canadians to visit the US. Speaking at an operator meeting at the twenty-third annual Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA) convention, Peace Bridge Duty Free general manager and outgoing FDFA treasurer Chuck Loewen said that he believed the shift represented a “huge window of opportunity to promote the business”.

He said: “Most of these Canadian travellers do not know about the business, or what they are entitled to buy. There should be an educational campaign...to convince them to spend some of their cross-border shopping money before they get to the US.”

Boutique Hors Taxes de Philipsburg’s Philippe Blachand, also an FDFA board member, revealed that the association has set aside a budget of C$20,000 to fund a campaign, but hoped individual retailers would top up the fund with campaigns that can be applied locally. Suppliers declined to contribute financially, but some have agreed to lend resources to the FDFA to aid any campaign. Loewen added that FDFA has set aside reserves in previous years, and suggested that some of these funds now be allocated to the campaign.

The debate will now focus on how best to use the association’s, retailers’ and suppliers’ resources to create the campaign, and which media it should be placed in.