KrisShop guide - how cheap is duty-free shopping with Singapore Airlines?
PUBLISHED ONNovember 19, 2019 3:56 AMByEugenia Liew
I don’t know about you, but I often confuse Singapore Airlines’ KrisShop with iShopChangi. They’re both duty-free shops, so I kind of just always assumed they’re the same.
Well, they’re not. And they’re actually really quite different: as you can tell from the names, iShopChangi is by Changi Airport and KrisShop is by Singapore Airlines (“KrisFlyer shop”, get it?).
This article will focus on online and inflight duty-free shopping with KrisShop.
WHAT IS KRISSHOP?
KrisShop is a duty-free retailer selling everything from cosmetics and fragrance to electronics and exclusive co-branded items.
KrisShop started as an inflight-shopping service — meaning you could only buy from them while on board a Singapore Airlines / SilkAir flight — but it has since expanded to include online shopping via KrisShop.com too.
That means you can buy from them even if you’re not travelling, but don’t get excited just yet — if you do that, you’ll have to add GST back to the prices, so it won’t actually be duty-free anymore.
HOW TO SHOP ON KRISSHOP
There are 2 ways to shop with KrisShop: you can either 1) shop directly on your Singapore Airlines / SilkAir flight or 2) order on KrisShop.com.
The former is quite straightforward. You can browse the KrisShop catalogue on your SQ flight, and from there, decide whether to collect your items right away or have them couriered to you.
On KrisShop.com, you can 1) pre-order items for collection on your SQ flight, or 2) order items to be delivered to your home address.
KrisShop Delivery Options
| Inflight delivery | Home delivery to Singapore address | |
| Product prices | Duty-free | Must add GST |
| Delivery fees | Free | Up to $12 per trip |
| Process time | Items to be collected on your flight | Delivery will take up to 10 working days |
| Catalogue | Not all products are eligible for inflight and/or home delivery. You will need to check the individual product page. | |
Shopping on KrisShop.com only makes sense if you have an upcoming SQ flight to collect your items because that way, “delivery” is free. Depending on your flight, the pre-order deadlines are as follows:
KrisShop Inflight Delivery Pre-order Deadlines
| Can order from (earliest) | Must order by (latest) | |
| Singapore Airlines flights departing Singapore (excluding flights to Malaysia and direct flights to San Francisco and Seattle) | 60 days before your flight | 24 hours before your flight |
| SilkAir flights departing Singapore (excluding flights to Kuala Lumpur and Penang) | 60 days before your flight | 48 hours before your flight |
| Selected Singapore Airlines flights arriving in Singapore from China, Taiwan and Japan | 60 days before your flight | 72 hours before your flight |
To collect your stuff, all you have to do is show the cabin crew the e-invoice or your credit card (the one you used to make the purchase) and they’ll assist you.
If you treat KrisShop.com like a normal online store and try to just have them delivered to your home (without a valid SQ flight ticket), you won’t enjoy the duty-free prices. You’ll have to add GST, which defeats the entire purpose of KrisShopping.
Here’s how it’ll look when you try to check out:
Additionally, you won’t be able to purchase travel-exclusive products. You can, however, still shop on KrisShop even after you’re back from your trip. Generally, your flight needs to have been flown within the past 30 days.
But even if you don’t mind paying the retail price (that includes GST), you’ll have to bear hefty delivery fees to have your shopping sent to your doorstep.
KrisShop Home Delivery Fees
| KrisShop delivery type | Delivery fees | Delivery time |
| Standard delivery for KrisShop Living catalogue | Free | 7 to 10 working days |
| Standard delivery (excluding KrisShop Living catalogue) | $6 for purchases below $100; free for purchases above $100 | 3 to 5 working days |
| Express delivery (all items excluding KrisShop Living catalogue) | $12 | 1 to 3 working days |
If you get furniture and other items from the KrisShop Living catalogue, delivery is free. There is no minimum spend criteria, but that’s because pretty much everything costs over $100.
For everything else, standard delivery is only waived for purchases above $100. If not, it’s $6 per trip. For express delivery within 1 to 3 days, it will be $12 regardless of your bill.
KrisShop Return Policy
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Sadly, KrisShop doesn’t accept returns if you change your mind. You can only send your order back if you received them in a defective or damaged state. Also, not everything can be returned. Alcohol, for instance, cannot be returned “due to government regulations”.
Also, if you used KrisFlyer miles to pay, your items are strictly non-refundable and non-exchangeable. For voucher-paid stuff, it is only exchangeable.
EARNING KRISFLYER MILES ON KRISSHOP ($1 = 1.5 KRISFLYER MILES)
For mile-chasers, another benefit to shopping on KrisShop is that you can earn KrisFlyer miles. Every $1 spent earns you 1.5 KrisFlyer miles, which is not bad. For shopping, most partner merchants only let you earn miles in blocks of $5 and $10.
To earn the KrisFlyer miles, you’ll need to log into your KrisFlyer account on KrisShop.com. It will take up to 30 business days for the miles to be credited into your account.
Do note that you can only earn miles on the nett purchase amount — that means whatever you offset using vouchers and KrisFlyer miles won’t count. Discounts, delivery fees and other taxes are excluded too.
KRISFLYER MILES REDEMPTION ON KRISSHOP (125 KRISFLYER MILES - $1)
Not only can you earn KrisFlyer miles on KrisShop, but you can redeem them too. If you’re not really playing the miles game and have just accumulated some miles from somewhere, then you can try to use whatever you have to offset part of your bill.
Do note, however, that although the redemption rate is 125 KrisFlyer miles for $1, you’ll need to redeem at least 1,000 KrisFlyer miles per transaction. That’s quite a bit.
As with earning KrisFlyer miles, you will have to log into your account to redeem them. During checkout, key in how many miles you’d like to use and pay the rest (if any) with your card.
CONCLUSION: IS KRISSHOP CHEAPER THAN ISHOPCHANGI?
Now that we’ve established that KrisShop is iShopChangi same-same-but-different, let’s compare their duty-free prices to see which one is more worth shopping at.
| Product / category | KrisShop | iShopChangi |
| SKII Facial Treatment Essence (250ml) | $237 | $241.30 |
| Chloe Signature EDP (75ml) | $111.30 (on sale, usually $159) | $164.10 |
| Apple AirPods with Charging Case | $223.36 | $223.36 |
| Johnnie Walker Blue Label | $237 for 0.75L | $247.50 for 1L (on sale, usually $275) |
| SONY DSC-RX100M7 Camera | $1,494 | $1,494.40 (on sale, usually $1,541.10) |
Their catalogues overlap quite a bit, so for this comparison, I picked a handful of random items from the beauty and electronics categories. From this sample, it would seem that KrisShop is cheaper across the board.
(The prices are correct as at the time of writing.)
Aside from the Apple AirPods which is probably a controlled-price item, KrisShop is cheaper for everything else. Even though I picked 2 items that iShopChangi was running a promo for (the Johnnie Walker whiskey and a SONY digital camera), KrisShop still had better prices.
Conclusion: If you have an upcoming SQ flight and had planned to do some duty-free shopping at the airport, make sure you check KrisShop.com first in case they sell the same thing for less.
This article was first published in MoneySmart .