With Taipei City’s Ximending Commercial District being is popular among international tourists, Taipei Ximen Pedestrian Area Development Association has responded to the government’s policy of promoting mobile payment by introducing the “TaipeiPass” mobile app and payment platform and offering special discounts and creative marketing activities in combination with the government’s Triple Stimulus Vouchers. Despite that fact that international tourists are still unable to come to Taiwan due to border controls, the district has still turned in an impressive report card with NT$4.6 billion in revenues in the second half of 2020.
In the past, only 20% of visitors to the Ximending Commercial District were international tourists. However, in terms of spending power, they contributed as much as 80% of revenues, a clear indication that Ximending is not a strong market when it comes to domestic demand. As a result, the district was the first to bear the brunt when the coronavirus first hit. When the epidemic was at its peak, sales and crowds in the commercial district both dropped by 80%. As noted by Liu Chia-Hsin, chairman of the Ximending Pedestrian Zone Development Promotion Association, “When the epidemic first occurred, the decline in sales couldn’t even be calculated in terms of percentages. For example, souvenir shops were earning less than NT$1000 per day. Even worse, they had stocked a lot of goods because of the Lunar New Year, which all passed their expiration dates and had to be thrown away since no one came.”
The Association works to transform and revitalize the district to ensure its continued growth. During the epidemic, Ximending cooperated with the Taipei City Government by signing onto the “TaipeiPass” mobile application and payment platform and encouraged increased spending by local customers through special discounts offered by designated merchants in the commercial district for customers using a combination of Triple Stimulus Vouchers and mobile payment. At the same time, the identification function in the TaipeiPass mobile application has made it possible to implement a real-name registration system for improved pandemic prevention during this period. Thanks to the Triple Stimulus Voucher offers, the mobile payment rate has increased significantly. “In the past, there was no incentive to use mobile payment because there were too few discounts, and even when additional discounts were on offer, people still went back to using cash after the campaign ended. The implementation of the COVID-19 real-name system really did boost mobile payment usage,” said Liu Chia-Hsin, chairman of the Association.
In addition to stimulating spending through mobile payment, the Ximending Commercial District also launched marketing events such as the Revitalize the Economy, Double Your Returns Friendship Festival and XIMEN PLAY and BUY in the second half of 2020. These, together with increased spending driven by the government’s Triple Stimulus Vouchers and additional discounts offered by merchants led to a rebound in Ximending foot traffic from 26,000 visitors per day during the epidemic to 50,000 to 60,000 now. Ximending successfully captured the domestic market and accelerated the recovery of the commercial district through promotions that brought in increased local spending.
Source: Taipei Ximen Pedestrian Area Development Association