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Inbound Marketing for
Retail & Duty-Free

With native English and Chinese teams,we get you chosen from abroadand run all of it for you.

  • Native English and Chinese speakers on staff
  • Strong in travel
  • A full range of marketing solutions

We focus on the shopping list inbound visitors decide on RED (Xiaohongshu) and Instagram before entering the shop and on the experience of handling products in a tax-free store, and use it to drive visits and purchases counted by store.

Platforms we cover

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Xiaohongshu (RED)

Overseas visitors research trips on social media now

88.1%

Nine in ten inbound visitors go shopping

Shopping, as something done during this trip to Japan. It is also named by 54.2% as something to do next time

Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan, 2025 annual report

27.0%

Inbound shopping is nearly three tenths of spending

Shopping as a share of inbound travel spending. Accommodation is 36.6% and food and drink 21.9%

Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan, 2025 annual report

93.2%

Of those who shopped, over nine in ten are satisfied

Share of inbound visitors who went shopping and said they were satisfied

Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan, 2025 annual report

43.3%

Before departure, they check social media

Share naming social media as a useful source before departure. Video sites come in at 39.6% and personal blogs at 23.9%

Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan, 2025 annual report

33.8%

During the trip too, they look for places to shop

Places to shop, as useful information during a stay in Japan. Behind restaurants at 56.0% and attractions at 39.1%

Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan, 2025 annual report
  • POV video of cleaning a guest room at Shimoda View Hotel

    Shimoda, Shizuoka

    Hotels & ryokan

    Shimoda View Hotel

    1.99M views

  • POV video of a stylist coloring hair at a Shibuya salon

    Shibuya, Tokyo

    Hair salon

    A hair salon in Shibuya

    2.3M views

  • POV video of a food truck selling braised-pork burgers at an event

    Japan National Stadium, Tokyo

    Food truck

    Iwasaki Honpo (braised-pork burgers)

    1.51M views

  • POV video of making toppings in a pudding kitchen
    Sweets maker

    Tokyo Tenryu

    1.0M views

  • POV video of a coin ring workshop

    Asakusa, Tokyo

    Craft workshop

    RAGTIME COIN FACTORY

    790K views

  • Video of an acai bowl shop owner presenting the menu

    Kawaramachi, Kyoto

    Café

    Sugary, an acai bowl shop

    4.6M views

  • POV video of a J.League home match, filmed through the eyes of the club's media officer
    Football club

    Reilac Shiga FC

  • Ad video for a fan-cooled vest
    Ad video

    Landmark Co., Ltd.

  • POV video walking through the night-time art at a hot spring glamping site

    Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki

    Glamping

    Izura Hot Spring

4 benefits of inbound marketing for retail and duty-free shops

  1. 01

    Show how it feels to use

    Size, texture, what's inside the box. The feel of picking something up comes across on video without translation.

  2. 02

    Make the shopping list before the trip

    Shoppers who see price, location and tax-free eligibility on video arrive already knowing what to buy.

  3. 03

    Build a customer base that doesn't rely on one country

    Spread across the platforms each country uses, and your sales base holds even if one market drops.

  4. 04

    Head office sees which store sold what

    Tie posts to stores with coupons or tracking links, and head office can compare results store by store.

Four reasons retail and duty-free shops choose TripClear for inbound marketing

  1. A local's eye

    Native English and Chinese speakers on staff

    From one shoot we create posts in Japanese, Simplified Chinese and English.

  2. 20M+combined followers

    Strong in travel

    We work backward from target countries to platforms, splitting mainland China from the rest so you never depend on one country.

  3. Joined-up channels

    A full range of marketing solutions

    We prepare store-specific coupons and tracking links first, and only videos that got a response go into ads. Services to combine with

  4. Cast by country

    Overseas creators, too

    Creator disclosure follows both Xiaohongshu's ad labeling and Japan's stealth marketing rules.

POV Studio

POV leans on no words, so rolling it out market by market moves faster.

POV is vertical video shot from the viewer's own point of view. Because it leans on no dialogue, a language barrier never becomes a barrier to the footage.

  • Illustration of a first-person video on a vertical phone with a long playback bar, a save icon and a search bar

    3.8×

    More saves, more branded search, longer viewing

    A typical reel holds viewers for 5 to 10 seconds; a POV view lasts 30 to 40. Save rates run 3.8× those of ordinary video, and branded search is up 68%.

  • Illustration of vertical videos arriving by paper plane from the first week of a calendar

    7days

    Very fast turnaround

    Delivery in as little as seven business days. The four to six weeks that casting would take shrinks, so you make the busy season.

  • Illustration of a person walking while filming in first person with a compact camera on their chest

    0

    No cast, no risk

    No performer's likeness or words can turn into a problem across borders. Swapping out a scene takes a day.

  • Illustration of thumbnails for many vertical videos produced from a single source clip

    20/month

    Volume at low cost

    From 20 videos a month at 30,000 to 80,000 yen each. Swap the subtitles and voice-over, and the same footage serves country after country.

See POV Studio

Creative that moves people

Now that social media has become the main battleground for business, what it takes is strategy and memorable content, together. Delivering both is what TripClear does best.

By focusing on the experience people get through a product or service, and on the process of how things are actually made, we turn that content into brand recall, sales, and hiring.

  • Video save rate

    3.8×

    Average save rate versus standard video

  • Branded search growth

    +68%

    Growth in brand-name searches driven by POV video

  • Lower ad CPA

    -42%

    Measured CPA reduction versus existing social ads

Our creative work

See all
  • POV video of making toppings in a pudding kitchen
    Sweets maker

    Tokyo Tenryu

  • POV video of cleaning a guest room at Shimoda View Hotel

    Shimoda, Shizuoka

    Hotels & ryokan

    Shimoda View Hotel

  • POV video of a stylist coloring hair at a Shibuya salon

    Shibuya, Tokyo

    Hair salon

    A hair salon in Shibuya

  • POV video of a food truck selling braised-pork burgers at an event

    Japan National Stadium, Tokyo

    Food truck

    Iwasaki Honpo (braised-pork burgers)

  • POV video of a coin ring workshop

    Asakusa, Tokyo

    Craft workshop

    RAGTIME COIN FACTORY

  • Video of an acai bowl shop owner presenting the menu

    Kawaramachi, Kyoto

    Café

    Sugary, an acai bowl shop

  • POV video of a J.League home match, filmed through the eyes of the club's media officer
    Football club

    Reilac Shiga FC

  • POV video of cutting an exhaust and fitting a variable valve in a repair shop
    Auto repair

    Doggies outfit customs (Dufflyer LLC)

  • POV video of a glamping site staff member checking guests in

    Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki

    Glamping

    Izura Hot Spring

See our results →

Process

From choosing the target country to running the multilingual accounts: how it actually runs for a retailer

From agreeing the objective through multilingual operations and repurposing into ads, handled as one continuous piece

  1. 1Inquiry and quote

    We ask which countries you're targeting and how you welcome visitors, set platforms and scope per country, then quote.

  2. 2Aligning on objectives

    It starts with which products, delivered to customers from which country.

  3. 3Audience research

    We identify who, from which country, decides where to shop, and where.

  4. 4Choosing platforms and building the path to a visit

    Before any posting, we settle the receiving side and how it gets counted.

  5. 5Filming on the shop floor and producing multilingual content

    Filmed without stopping the shop floor, then rebuilt per market.

  6. 6Going live, scaling, and monthly reporting

    Videos that produced numbers get widened through advertising and PR.

For retailers and duty-free stores, the platform mix, and what we watch on each

RED (Xiaohongshu)mainland China Where they check. Product, price and duty-free status kept there

What we watchViews from search, saves, profile visits

Instagramdomestic and inbound alike The main battleground in Japanese. Arrivals, exclusives and opening hours kept there

What we watchSaves, profile visits, link clicks

TikTok and YouTubeTaiwan, Hong Kong and the West The way in. The shelves, how to buy, and how duty-free works

What we watchViews, average watch time, taps from the description

Paid socialMeta and TikTok Winning videos delivered to target countries, around the time people travel

What we watchArrivals at the store page, coupons claimed

In store and your own shop The landing layer. Multilingual guidance and per-store coupons

What we watchCoupon redemptions, duty-free transactions, average spend

These are examples. Your products and the number of stores change the order.

We'll lay out the approach and cost for your business when we talk

Consultations and quotes are freeRequest a quote

FAQ

Questions we are often asked by retailers and duty-free stores

We're flat out preparing for the November 2026 duty-free refund system. Can the posting wait?

Dealing with the regulation comes first. What we often see at this stage is starting with translating the guidance documents and turning the process into video for people to watch before they visit.

Can a Japanese company open a RED (Xiaohongshu) business account?

It can. It is treated as an overseas company, though, so notarised translations of the company register are required, along with a 600 yuan annual review fee and a one-year validity period.

Chinese visitor numbers are falling. Is investing in RED (Xiaohongshu) safe?

Honestly, we would recommend not leaning on one country. Keep RED running, and hold Instagram, TikTok and YouTube alongside it for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Western markets.

We have several stores. Can head office run it centrally?

It can. Run the official account from head office and issue separate coupon codes and tracking links per store, and neither the management nor the measurement strains.

We have no staff who speak Chinese or English.

That's no obstacle. Translation, voiceover, subtitles and comment handling sit with our native-speaker team. For the questions you get asked in store, we build the multilingual standard answers with you.

How do you count whether it led to a visit or a purchase?

The counting comes first. The destination page, per-store coupon codes, and, where you have your own shop, measurement through to purchase, all before any posting. Monthly reporting leads with the numbers closest to visits and purchases.

What does it cost, and what is the going rate?

It depends on the number of target countries, the platforms and accounts we run, and how many languages are covered. We quote individually after a hearing. If ads are used too, delivery costs are paid to the platforms at cost, separately from the quote.

Can we hire you for multilingual social media management or inbound tourism support?

Our inbound marketing support covers multilingual social media management and inbound tourism support together. We use Instagram and TikTok for English-speaking markets and Xiaohongshu (RED) and Douyin for Chinese-speaking markets, and handle everything from multilingual captions and subtitles to local KOC/KOL campaigns and ad delivery.

Which company runs this service?

TripClear Inc., based in Shinsen-cho, Shibuya, Tokyo. Our core is social media management and vertical short-form video production, and we support retail and e-commerce. For the company profile, see Company.

Do you have case studies or a track record with retail and e-commerce?

Our case studies with retail and e-commerce are introduced on the social media management page. Our track record across industries is collected in Works.

Which languages and platforms do you cover?

For inbound visitors we run multilingual accounts, mainly in English and Chinese. Alongside Instagram and TikTok we cover RED (Xiaohongshu) and Douyin for the Chinese-speaking market. Campaigns with KOCs and KOLs (local creators with influence) are designed by the same team.

Get in touch

Inbound marketing for
retail and duty-free.
Get in touch,
we're always happy to talk

Free consultations and quotes available