The historically significant department store Bloomingdales do some pretty cool stuff. This includes the ‘Visitor discount’ they provide:
Yep, if you’re from another country you automatically receive an 11% discount on everything you buy. Now, this isn’t one of those trick promotions, impossible to get, with 100 other conditions. You simply go to the visitor center pictured above and show them your passport, or overseas license and that is it. And the discount is real, even if an item is on promotion or already discounted, you get the 11% on top of that. I was fortunate enough to get an incredible winter jacket which was already half price (end of winter discount, even though it was actually snowing outside) with an additional 11%. I was pretty happy. They also have a gift incentive if you spend over $200, and yep, I got my gift…
It get’s better, they also have personal shopping assistants, Multi-lingual assistants to take your around store and free hotel delivery for purchases greater that $250. You can read more about it here.
Sure, discounting isn’t always the path to profitability, but when you are taking one time customers, making them feel special, with ‘money to spend’, under your wing, it’s pretty clear that they are ‘inventing revenue’.
What does your startup do to ‘invent revenue’?
Interesting, I wish I had known about that when I was in NY last year – mind you the A$ was worth more against the US$ then, so I’m not complaining too much.
Is it actually a discount by the Store, or is it just Sales tax removed which a lot of countries do? Even Aus, but you have to fart about getting stuff delivered to the airport in sealed packets and have to take it as carry on luggage.