International travellers in the post-Covid-19 context are more likely to convert into buyers than  in recent years.

This is according to latest consumer research from Swiss travel and travel retail market research agency m1nd-set.

Latest m1nd-set analysis compares shopper behaviour in airports over the past five years, through the pre-Covid era to the present.

The analysis compares the evolution of footfall and conversion rates, changes in the categories purchased and the evolution and variations over the years in why people purchase in travel retail, what triggered the purchase and some of the barriers to purchase.

Among the key findings, m1nd-set reveals that while conversion (share of duty free buyers out of duty free visitors) had been decreasing since 2017 — from 66% to 52% in 2020 — the percentage of shoppers making a purchase in duty free and travel retail stores has risen again in 2021 to the same levels as 2018 (59%).

CLEAR DOWNWARD TREND

Inversely, however, the research demonstrates a clear downward trend in terms of footfall over this period among global passengers. Airports have lost 5% of passengers, according to passenger feedback between 2017 and 2021, while 42% of travellers globally say they entered duty free and other retail shops in 2017. That percentage has fallen to 37% in Q1 2021, according to m1nd-set.

Another finding is the evolution of categories purchased and purchase planning. Global travellers in 2021 are more likely to purchase categories that tend to be planned in advance. For the perfumes category, 41% of shoppers purchased in 2021 versus 31% on average when considering all previous four years. This represents an increase of 10%.

For fashion and accessories, there is a 7% increase in 2021 compared to the previous years, (22% versus 15%), 6% for skincare (25% vs 19%) and jewellery & watches (14% vs 8%), 5% for tobacco products (22% versus 17%) and 4% for make-up (20% versus 16%). For all these categories, the significant majority of shoppers — between 75% and 90% depending on the category — plan their purchases.

The percentage of DF&TR shoppers planning their purchases had been decreasing steadily since 2017, from 80% to 75% in 2020. In 2021, however, the trend has been reversed with 86% of shoppers saying they will plan their purchases to at least some extent when travelling. They are less likely to purchase completely on impulse, however, with the percentage of shoppers doing so decreasing from 25% in 2020 to 14% in 2021.

M1nd-set Owner & CEO Peter Mohn said: “The global footfall and conversion trends over the past five years are very interesting to see, as there are still more than 40% of store visitors who need to be enticed to spend, not to mention the 63% of all passengers who do not enter the shops.”

He added: “More interesting still, however, are the non-visitor and non-shopper customer segments. In the post-pandemic environment, the reasons for not visiting or shopping at an airport have, without question, evolved and will be quite different to the reasons for not-shopping expressed in 2017.

“It’s important to underline though that while the global data demonstrated here paints a general picture, the realities will inevitably vary from one airport to another; even between terminals at the same airport. It is vital to approach these consumer insights from a regional-specific, market by market and even airport specific perspective. Each retailer and airport need to understand the reasons behind the barriers to visiting and shopping in the retail stores” he concluded.

More detailed data on the regional or national market tendencies are available upon request from m1nd-set. For more information, please contact m1nd-set: [email protected].