TFWA Research Notes Shifts in Consumer Behavior

The second TFWA Research Workshop highlighted the latest shifts in consumer behaviour and how they will impact the development of the duty free and travel retail sector in coming years.

Garry Stasiulevicuis, managing director of Counter Intelligence Retail, said that attitudes to luxury are changing. ‘Luxury’ is no longer about possession, but all about experience. The travelling population has changed, and there is a much younger travelling consumer coming through airports who wants different things and different experiences.

There will be more than nine billion passengers travelling by 2025, with traffic increasing by 70 percent compared with 2015, and with significant growth coming from Asia. Today, 27 percent of the world’s population is deemed ‘middle class’ but by 2030, this figure will grow to a staggering 60 percent. The biggest change in the middle class will be in Asia, and by 2030, 60 percent of the world’s middle class will live in this region.

Presenting highlights of TFWA’s recent study on the impact and influence of mobile technology and e-commerce on duty free & travel retail, Peter Mohn, founder and CEO of m1nd-set, highlighted that there are now 4.8 billion mobile device users in the world. Research conducted by m1nd-set found that nine out of 10 people use the internet at an airport. But what is interesting is that 31 percent of people said they were looking for information on brands and products to compare prices or to find out more by reading customer reviews. While in Europe 40 percent of passengers do this, in China well over half (56 percent) consult the internet when shopping at the airport.

Mohn stated that it is very important for brands and retailers to have a presence online as well as offline, and to ensure that there is consistency across all touch-points.

The Impact of e-commerce, online and mobile technology in duty free & travel retail report is available free of charge to TFWA members, and is available for them to download in the members only section of the TFWA website.