Retailer: Gyll, trading as Joyful

Location: historic old town, Madrid

Stock: luxury leather goods

Target customer: luxury shoppers including tourists

Planet products: retail payments (currency conversion, Alipay and WeChat Pay) and VAT refunds

Not so long ago, working in a shop anywhere in the world was a simple affair. The clientele was likely to be very similar, the service distinctly low-tech. A till to ring up the sale, cash or card and a printed receipt – all in the local language.

Today, working in retail, particularly a shop selling luxury goods with a sizeable tourist base, demands many more skills. These range from dealing with different cultural expectations and languages to working with hi-tech terminals that can take payment digitally, in multiple currencies – converting them in real time to the shopper’s national currency – VAT Refunds and much more. You’re likely to be much busier.

According to Insider Intelligence, worldwide retail sales are set to grow by five per cent this year, reaching $27.33 trillion. But it’s a competitive business. Stores that cannot deliver a modern, slick experience from confident staff are at a disadvantage.

The increasingly hi-tech nature of successful selling can be daunting for staff, while the technology and processes from point of sale through to deducting payment from the shopper’s account and transferring it to that of the retailer is often fragmented, making it more susceptible to disruption.

It was the reality of grappling with all this that prompted Gyll, a rapidly growing retailer of high-quality Italian leather goods in the heart of Madrid’s tourist district, to look at its payment partnerships.

“The traditional payment process involves so many suppliers who are usually remote. There’s the till provider, the card-reader provider, currency conversion and settlement process. If something goes wrong with one of them, the whole thing can go down, which frustrates the customer and can lose us valuable sales revenues,” says Giorgio Yuan Lin, CEO and founder of Gyll, which trades under the name of Joyful.

The company had been using manual tills and wanted to modernise the whole process, including offering new payment methods such as digital wallets, particularly the Chinese WeChat Pay and Alipay. The two Chinese wallet payment methods are key to future growth plans as Gyll is located just off the Plaza Mayor, a prime tourist attraction for Chinese shoppers.

Gyll was also interested in the prospect of automated VAT Refunds and multi-currency payments (also known as DCC), both of which generate additional revenue for merchants.

“When we found Planet, we were impressed by the different digital solutions and the level of support it provides,” Lin says. “The big tick was that it could provide everything end-to-end for the payment process, including accepting Alipay at the regular terminal. On top of that, we would get a dedicated sales-support rep who would help train our staff.”

Once the contract was signed, implementation was completed in October last year. “The integrations were easy because we were supported by the Planet team throughout the entire process. The key account manager came to the store, she did the training with us and explained all the details. The terminal came installed, so we didn’t need to do anything else. We just needed to switch it on and learn how it works,” Lin adds.

Should anything go wrong – perhaps a hiccup with payment validation – the support team is local, so response times are fast. A dedicated support-team member has also been able to reassure Gyll about the effects of the recent sanctions against Russia on selling luxury goods.

Another benefit is that Gyll staff have received value-add training on international sales techniques. This includes cultural training – how best to approach shoppers from different parts of the world. Latin American, southern European and most Middle Eastern countries are known as high contact – their populations tend to stand close when speaking and make physical contact more often. People from Northern Europe and North America stand further apart, while those from South-East Asia tend to avoid physical contact altogether. Eye contact also varies regionally. Latin Americans value unbroken eye contact, while those from South-East Asia avoid it. Get it right and shoppers feel more comfortable.

“Sales is all about building the right relationship with the customer. In a shop, you might not have that long to do this. Knowing how best to react is vital and will increase conversion rates,” Lin says.

Planet also supplies stickers for window displays to promote Tax Free shopping and the various payment methods accepted. This is proven to help increase footfall. And as a complimentary marketing service, the Planet team set up both stores’ profiles in the Alipay Lifestyle app, which helps attract and engage Chinese visitors.

“Planet is a business driver… and has a competitive vision of our business. We saw in Planet a holistic and technologically modern solution,” Lin says.

Looking ahead, there are plans to use Planet’s services and digital platforms to grow the business, which is looking forward to the launch of the automatic VAT Refunds feature. “This is only the beginning of a collaborative work relationship that could lead to further expansion and innovation,” he says.