Consumers’ perception of duty free shops as being value for money continues to fall, says study

INTERNATIONAL. Value for money remains the number one satisfaction driver among duty free shoppers globally – and for the second quarter running ‘novelties’ feature in the top five satisfaction drivers.

That’s according to the second quarterly Duty Free World Council (DFWC) KPI Monitor of 2017, which was produced in partnership with research and consultancy agency m1nd-set.

Source, all charts: Duty Free World Council and m1nd-set
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The availability of ‘new brands’ and ‘exclusive and unique’ products both continue to show increases, in terms of the percentage of passengers who agree that these criteria define the overall duty free shopping experience. There have been consistent increases in these categories over the past four quarters, DFWC said.

“Value for money, while remaining the most important satisfaction driver, requires scrutiny by stakeholders as the percentage of shoppers that find duty free prices cheaper has declined, for the third consecutive quarter, to 26%,” DFWC stated. “The Q2 monitor looks more in depth at certain nationality and age group segments to provide a better understanding of where and among whom the value perception is strongest and weakest.”

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The average score globally for the retail channel’s perceived value for money is 3.6 on a scale of 1 to 5. Shoppers from the UK and Brazil are among those who give the lowest rating, at 3.2. Other nationalities rating the channel below average for value for money include Australians, Dutch and Swiss shoppers with a score of 3.3 and shoppers from Argentina, the USA and Japan with a score of 3.4.

Chinese shoppers give the highest value for money rating to the duty free channel with a score of 4.2. Shoppers from Thailand, the Philippines and South Africa also have positive value perceptions with a 4.1 rating. Shoppers from Saudi Arabia, Russia and India also give above average ratings.

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In terms of age segments, Millennials are the most positive about their value perception of duty free with a 3.8 score, while the middle aged and senior citizen segments both give below average ratings.

The Q2 monitor also examined the purchasing decision moment, illustrating that two thirds of shoppers make the decision to purchase in duty free shops before entering – either before leaving for the airport, on their way to the airport or once they have arrived at the airport. Only one third make the purchase decision once they are actually in the duty free shops.

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“The high percentage of shoppers who decide to purchase duty free before entering the shops or even arriving at the airport underlines once again the importance of digital shopping platforms, both online and mobile, as well as other pre-travel communications,” DFWC said.

The overall index remains constant from the last quarter globally with no change in Asia Pacific, a one point rise in Europe and South America and a one point decline in the Middle East & Africa and in North America.

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The report was compiled from face to face interviews with over 4,000 travellers at airports across all major world regions during Q2 2017 with the fieldwork and analysis undertaken in June.

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