DFS has become the first travel retailer to be recognised as a ‘Best in Class’ brand for its use of WeChat Pay’s Mini Program, following its adoption of the technology in 2017.

The retailer is featured as part of WeChat Pay’s annual Co-Creation of Smart Life campaign, which promotes the use of seamless mobile payment solutions as a means to support the development of smart cities, smart transport and smart retail.

Retailers featured as Best In Class are promoted on online and offline channels to over 100 million viewers.

WeChat Pay has acknowledged DFS’ “quick” adoption of the Mini Program, as well as what it described as the retailer’s “commitment to continually elevating and innovating the ‘app within an app’ for the benefit of its customers from China”.

Since first partnering with WeChat Pay in 2017, DFS has created several Mini Programs to engage with its traveling customers, with one program rewarding customers who shared their shopping profiles, enabling better personalisation of communications to drive engagement and sales.

Another invited customers to sign up to DFS’ customer rewards program, LOYAL T, from their mobile device anywhere in the world and receive a virtual membership card instantly, bypassing time-consuming manual processes.

Recently, to mark the May Day shopping period, DFS also introduced a “friend pickup” service where customers were able to ask a friend living in or traveling to Hong Kong to pick up goods for them.

DFS Group Vice President Digital and eCommerce Development, DK Ding said: “The WeChat Mini Program has been a cornerstone of DFS’ customer strategy since we launched our first one in 2017.

“Since then we have developed multiple impactful Mini Programs, finding new ways to enhance our customers’ digital experience with us while showcasing the wide range of products and experiences available in our stores.”

Other companies to receive WeChat Pay’s ‘Best in Class’ recognition in 2019 include JD.com, KFC, Airbnb and China Southern Airlines.