As New York’s summer shopping season came to an end in late September, various Soho retailers say that sales slowed down last year because of the strength of the dollar and a decrease in tourist traffic caused by visa policies of US president Donald Trump.
Cecilia Kwong, the owner of Soi Boutique, said summer sales at her shop declined this year as her customers, who are mostly tourists, grapple with a higher exchange rate.
“When you are a tourist and the dollar is strong, you spend more on food, hotel, movies, Broadway shows, and so on,” Kwong, 35, said. “You may not have enough money for too much shopping.”
Kwong’s experience is a microcosm of most tourism-dependent retail shops in New York City. According to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism board, tourist traffic to the city and its five boroughs is expected to take a hit this year because of the twin effect of a stronger dollar and tougher visa policies under the Trump administration.
Inbound international travel will fall to 12.4 million in 2017, which translates to 300,000 fewer international tourists compared with last year, according to NYC & Company. The drop in tourist numbers is expected to cause spending in the boroughs to fall by $600 million.
Retail shops in Soho, and other areas of Manhattan, are particularly vulnerable to the decline in tourist spending because they are mostly luxury shops with a tendency to rely more on in-store sales, according to a McKinsey report.
Kwong said she is responding to the decline in sales by trying new strategies such as improving customer service, expanding social media presence, and contacting old customers. “You have to contact your repeat customers because they are the ones that are going to keep you afloat during the bad times,” said Kwong.
Other Soho retailers are also adopting new schemes to combat weak sales. The Broadway Market Company, a marketplace for local designers and artists, hired a host – Joel Hodgin – earlier this year to wear outlandish outfits and pose at the storefront in an effort to draw in more visitors from the street.
“If we didn’t have gimmicks, like being a host and interacting with customers, I think we would be hurting like the others,” Hodgin, 44, said.
As for a J.Crew clothing store on 484 Broadway, Raza Ojeda, the store’s manager, said it is replacing inventory and preparing for a boom in sales during the fall after experiencing sluggish sales during the summer. “We are expecting more sales between September and January, because of festivities,” Ojeda, 44, said.