INTERNATIONAL. The importance of travel retail exclusives has been highlighted in the Duty Free World Council’s (DFWC) KPI Monitor for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The latest report shows that global shoppers are more motivated to buy exclusive items in duty free stores, up 2% on the previous quarter, and with 45% of shoppers agreeing with the statement.
The results are in keeping with a recent major feature on travel retail exclusives in The Moodie Davitt eZine, which canvassed the opinions of retailers, brands and consumers. Topics discussed in the feature include language, communication, store positioning and the factors that determine a successful exclusive product.
DFWC’s KPI Monitor was compiled through interviews conducted by Swiss research and consultancy agency m1nd-set with more than 4,000 international travellers across all world regions during December.
The results showed that travellers had an improved perception of duty free shops as ‘a great place to try new brands’, to enjoy a ‘truly different experience’, and to find ‘exclusive and new products’.
The overall customer satisfaction index shows a global increase of two points on the third quarter of 2018, with the highest increase in Asia Pacific (+2), which is also the best performing region. Europe and South America both saw a one point increase in the global index while the Middle East and North America showed no change.
DFWC said the importance of exclusives was further underlined by the increasingly positive perception about the variety of products and how this makes duty free shops ‘a great place for shopping’. This perception improved 2% versus the 2018 Q3 Monitor.
After price advantage and value for money, the key reasons for buying in duty free shops are because the products are ‘not found at home’ and are ‘different from usual’, according to the report. ‘No duty free exclusives’ also moved into the top five reasons for not purchasing in duty free shops.
On a similar note, ‘lack of local experience’ was cited as the fifth main reason for not visiting duty free shops, suggesting that some travellers perceive duty free offers to be too similar.
Commenting on the findings, DFWC President Frank O’Connell said: “The time of year is clearly a contributing factor to the importance of exclusives, with brands and retailers pushing the exclusives and travel retail exclusive gift offers during the festive season. For both western travellers for Christmas and Chinese travellers purchasing ahead of the Chinese New Year period, travel retail exclusives are key purchase drivers at this time of year.
“If we look at the impact of the qualitative aspects on the overall perception of the duty free shopping experience as well as value for money, we see that ‘uniqueness of products/services’ is the second most impactful aspect on the satisfaction levels among global duty free shoppers.”
M1nd-set CEO and Owner Peter Mohn added: “It is vital for brands and retailers to offer a clear price advantage in duty free shops as this is what customers look for first and foremost, and uncompetitive prices remain the main barrier to visiting and purchasing in the channel.
“However, there are increasingly important expectations around the uniqueness of the offering and experience. A growing number of duty free shoppers are buying products which they have never bought before or which are unique and exclusive to duty free.”
