The Duty Free World Council (DFWC) reports that its quarterly key performance indicator (KPI) monitor covering Q1 in 2016 shows a slight increase in the Customer Satisfaction Index, thanks mainly to higher satisfaction being experienced with the general service levels being received in duty free shops.

 

The report was compiled from interviews with over 4,000 travellers across all major world regions during Q1 2016, with the KPI Monitor produced in partnership with the highly respected research and consulting agency m1nd-set.

 

Together, the two partners also compared results across the regions and discovered that that South Americans were the only ‘regional segment’ of them all where the Customer Satisfaction Index was lower than that recorded in Q4 2015.

 

This was primarily due to customers showing less satisfaction for the product variety on offer in these duty free shops.

 

By contrast, North American travellers were increasingly satisfied with the duty free shopping experience, as a result of an improved perception in the level of service received and the atmosphere created within duty free shops.

 

TECHNOLOGY ‘LEFT BEHIND’
At the sale time, shoppers overall were also reported to be ‘least satisfied’ with the technology offer, along with the ‘local touch and identity’ currently available in the Travel Retail & Duty Free channel. The range of affordable products and the unique identity of products and services were also noted as offering ‘significant room for improvement’.

 

The report adds: “While there has been no change in the satisfaction levels for the indicator which has the highest impact on the overall satisfaction level – value for money – one interesting change is that tobacco has surpassed both alcohol and perfume and cosmetics as the most positively perceived category.”

 

Fashion has also improved in satisfaction rankings on this indicator, compared to the previous quarter. Meanwhile, new to this quarterly monitor report is a comparison of the level of planned versus impulse purchasing across all regions.

 

The report says that North American travellers are most likely to purchase on impulse, while Middle East and African travellers are identified as those most likely to plan their duty free purchases.

 

At the same time and globally, more than 50% of all duty free purchases are still said to be made on impulse, the categories of fashion, accessories, jewellery and electronics the most likely impulse purchases.

 

DFWC and m1nd-set say it is no surprise that research shows that alcohol, tobacco and cosmetics continue to be the most planned purchases.

 

NEW RESEARCH ADDITIONS…
The two partners also say that other new features in the report include details on exactly when travellers decide to make their duty free purchases, which is currently mainly at home, before leaving for the airport, or closely followed by deciding within the shop itself.

 

Another area covered is price comparison behaviour, with South Americans shown to be the most likely to compare prices and North Americans the least. Cosmetics and alcohol are the categories for which prices are most commonly compared, while across the globe less than half those travellers surveyed – some 44% – admit to comparing prices.

 

The two partners conclude that while the DFWC Global Shopping Monitor reveals top level data for the most part with some regional differentiation insights, more detailed data on the regional disparities for each aspect studied is available from m1nd-set upon request. Click here: [email protected]

 

For the full research infographic version of the Q1 Monitor see below: