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Mind your language: sales staff given guide on foreign shoppers
Sri Carmichael23 Apr 2009
The West End has drawn up a strategy to pull in an extra £3billion from overseas shoppers by focusing on their specific cultural needs.
Retailers are being given detailed guidance on the customs and visiting habits of different nationalities.
More than 100,000 store staff will also be put through the West End Knowledge - a course focusing on facts about the district as well as greetings and phrases in more than 30 languages.
The move comes as spending by Britons remains depressed but foreign shoppers are flooding to the capital because of the weak pound.
Stores are planning to open late in the lead-up to Ramadan in August to capitalise on the surge in Middle Eastern visitors who prefer evening shopping.
A "Globeshoppers" calendar, commissioned by retailers' organisation the New West End Company, has listed cultural "hints".
It includes a reminder to assistants that a thumbs-up sign is an obscene gesture to Muslim customers, who also raise an eyebrow to say "no". Shop staff are told most Indian visitors come to London between April and June during the long summer holidays to escape the heat.
The guidance was produced following a study by The European School of Management, which looked at national holiday patterns across the world, past shopping traffic and customs.
Foreign tourists make up a quarter of the 200million visitors to the West End each year. By 2012 their contribution is expected to rise to 60million.
The plummeting exchange rate means British goods seem much cheaper to people from abroad.
Saudi Arabians spend on average £1,678 each per shopping trip, Russians £1,169 and Americans £676, according to the New West End Company.
Visit London communications director Ken Kelling said: "The recession is showing just how important it is to keep visitors coming from overseas."
Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, chairman of the New West End Company, said she was "encouraging retailers to pull out all the stops".
Liberty is launching an exhibition on the history of its fabrics in August to appeal to Middle Eastern, Chinese and American shoppers who come to London then and like purchasing quintessentially British brands. The store will also put gold jewellery on prominent display for visitors buying in preparation for the end of Ramadan.
Geoffroy de La Bourdonnaye, chief executive of Liberty, said the shop has opened up its floor space to allow overseas visitors who tend to come to London in big groups, such as the Russians, to move around more easily.
Arnaud Bamberger, managing director of Cartier UK, said: "August is a particularly important month for us as we welcome clients from the Middle East, who tend to have homes in London and demand unique designs. We ensure that the most outstanding creations are in our London boutiques."
A Selfridges spokesman said: "We want all our customers to feel at home with us, wherever their home may be. Our shopfloor people can greet people in over 40 different languages."
Up to five new green spaces will be created in the shopping district over the next three years after research for the New West End Company showed people-watching is as important as retail therapy to many European and Middle Eastern shoppers. The West End Red Caps, who have patrolled the area offering visitors advice and deterring anti-social behaviour since 2002, will be re-launched next month with a new uniform.
The Middle East will also be targeted next month as part of the current multi-million pound international marketing campaign by major West End retailers, which includes 20 international press trips.
Thumbs-up to an Arab is obscene
Arab nations: eg Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait
In Muslim cultures, women tend to shop in groups, but men are the decision-makers
Thumbs-up obscene. Raised eyebrows is "No"
Sales staff should not ask whom a gift is for
Won't shop in daylight hours during Ramadan
High spenders, expecting VIP treatment. They want instant gratification and dislike waiting
Singapore, Hong Kong and china
Shoppers like to buy branded and luxury goods, some of which are cheaper than at home
In Hong Kong the family name is said first eg Wong Man Ying would be addressed as Mr Wong
Chinese tend to travel with partners, not children
Expect a high level of service
They like to buy gifts not available in the US
They compare prices, are big internet shoppers
Like to see price in dollars as well as pounds
They travel in tour groups or with friends
Luxury buyers often young businessmen. West End considered very fashionable.
Look out for peak number of customers around International Women's Day (8 March).
Prefer verbal reassurance and face-to-face interaction in addition to printed information
Like to buy gifts only available in the UK
Reader views (3)
I've a few more tips: smile (preferably not sarcastically) to acknowledge the customer's existence; cease talking to your co-worker about your social life and don't make it VERY CLEAR that answering the customer's enquiry is really interrupting something else you were doing that was far more important.
Possibly you could extend the effort to the native populace, too . . .
- Roz, France, 23/04/2009 10:32
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Keep in mind Steve if that all the foreign tourists and workers just packed up and went home the West End and London would collapse....
- Edw, London, 22/04/2009 13:07
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As most of the staff in these shops are foreign to start with this should be a breeze.
- Steve, London, 22/04/2009 11:55
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