INTERNATIONAL. “It is essential for brands and retailers to ensure sales associates on the shop floor continue to interact and engage more with customers.”
That was the resounding message from the Duty Free World Council (DFWC) in reviewing the results of its KPI Monitor for the second quarter of 2019.
The report, which was produced for the DFWC by Swiss research agency m1nd-set, reveals steady growth in some of the key satisfaction drivers for duty free shoppers, with the global average increasing by one percentage point since Q1 2019.
Performance in North America declined by one point and remained static in Asia Pacific, but there was an increase of one point across all other regions. Compared to the same period in 2018, there has been a consistent increase in the global average, DFWC said.
Asia Pacific is the only region with an above average score. All other regions posted below average scores in the overall satisfaction index, which is computed by aggregating the satisfaction scores on all aspects of the visits to the duty free shops and weighting these based on their impact on the overall satisfaction level.
The KPI Monitor also tracks airport passenger growth with data from m1nd-set’s Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S) in partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Passenger traffic has risen across all world regions since Q2 2018, with a global increase of +5.6% to 882 million passengers. The strongest growth came from Europe, which experienced a +6.6% increase on the same period in 2018.
European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC) President Frank O’Connell said the KPI Monitor demonstrated the need for the industry to continue to focus on the key satisfaction drivers and ensure staff engage with shoppers.
He said: “The level of engagement between staff and visitors to the duty free shops has declined by -5% since the previous quarter according to the DFWC KPI Monitor, which is quite a concern.
“The impact of this decline in engagement is directly visible in the overall satisfaction levels and perception of duty free shops. We see in this quarterly Monitor, for example, that there is only one contributing element to the overall perception of duty free (‘duty free is a great place to try new brands’) that has seen an increase in the percentage of travellers who agree. All other criteria have either seen a decline or stagnated.”
M1nd-set Owner and CEO Peter Mohn commented: “We see clearly from the KPI Monitor that where staff interaction is greater, there is also greater influence on the decision to purchase. This is particularly evident in the Middle East/Africa region and in the beauty and fashion & accessories categories.
“Staff in the electronics category also perform well in influencing the purchase decision. There clearly needs to be more focus on engaging with older travellers as well as with those duty free visitors shopping for alcohol, confectionery, tobacco and souvenirs where engagement levels are markedly lower.”
The DFWC KPI Monitor is compiled from more than 4,000 interviews with shoppers globally and the latest research was conducted in June for the second quarter of 2019.
