Duty Free City
Miami, Florida
SAP Business One + iVend Point of Sales (POS)
Until recently, border-adjacent duty-free stores have focused on selling traditional duty-free items in convenience-style stores. That is, until Duty Free City (DFC) came onto the scene with luxury department stores on the U.S.-Mexico borders and plans to open 10 new stores in medium-sized airports. Headquartered in Miami, DFC is its own retail genre, trying to make the duty-free concept feel like a luxury, lifestyle destination with high-end offerings from the Estée Lauder portfolio, which includes Clinique, Origins and Smashbox beauty lines, and Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger fragrances.
Upon opening their initial stores, DFC needed a Point of Sale (POS) that would allow them to reflect their brand and lifestyle image, and maintain synchronization with an existing SAP database. Additionally, they required flexibility for customizations and to provide managers with visibility into profit per item at the point of sale.
Further, they needed a solution that would complement their growth plans. They invest significantly in the styling of their stores and believe that technology needs to compliment the aesthetics of the store and that mobile technology is key to achieving this.
After evaluating 4 other solutions, DFC selected iVend Retail for its inbuilt compatibility with the SAP ERP environment and with the aim of making retail transactions as smooth as possible. They wanted sales representative, as as well as our customers to have seamless shopping experiences that matched the luxury, lifestyle destination that their stores provide.
After selecting iVend Retail POS, DFC found the implementation managed efficiently by their SAP & iVend partner and made sure sales representatives were trained on the system. DFC has found CitiXsys to be responsive and willing to help us with any issue. According to Kelvin Perez, Inventory Planning / IT, DFC, “iVend Retail has been a strong POS solution so far and regular transactions and integration with SAP has worked great.”
After a few years using the iVend POS solution, DFC is looking to technology as key to achieving their goals of increasing traffic into their brick-andmortar airport stores, as their data reveals high conversion rates once shoppers are in store.
The iVend Retail omnichannel suite can help them achieve these growth plans and further improve the customer experience by implementing additional modules of iVend Retail:
Duty Free City (DFC) is a globally active, family-run business with a distinctive culture of values. Employing over 150 people in America, its corporate philosophy serves as a guide and as the foundation of success for the Company. In a constantly evolving market environment, DFC aims to be the first choice on the travel retail market by virtue of the vitality and long-term outlook of an independent family-run company. DFC supports customer journeys with the best omnichannel offers. Service and the shopper experience are continually enhanced, driving customerrelated developments with innovative services straddling all sales channels.
“With growth plans for our airport stores, we believe that expanding our utilization of mobile technology and leveraging the omnichannel capabilities of the iVend Retail suite will help us to increase store foot traffic and connect with our existing and potential customers while on layovers.”
– Philippe Dray, CEO, Duty Free City
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