A six-strong panel tackled the issues of conversion when spend is under pressure. 

The TR Consumer Forum 2026 hit the ground running with the first post-lunch session of Day 2: From Traffic to Transaction: Driving Conversion and Spend Under Pressure. It examined the critical challenge that, as price sensitivity increases, dwell time fluctuates, and traveller stress impacts decision-making, making the need to understand what drives conversion and spend even greater.

This pivotal issue was examined by a panel of six distinguished speakers, bringing a holistic perspective from across six specialist areas: Anna Somogyi, Marketing Director, Mondelēz World Travel Retail; Bianka Pivarcsi, Head of Marketing, Budapest Airport; Bouchra Danwra, CEO, Dhow Marcom Agency Global; Richard Simkins, Commercial & Partnerships Director – Airports – JCDecaux UK; Clara Susset, Chief Operating Officer, m1nd-set; with Martijn Steur, Founder and Managing Director, Kinetic Consultancy, as moderator.

The session launched with an outline of how the traditional correlation between passenger traffic and commercial revenue is decoupling. As European airports face capacity constraints, sustainability pressures, and shifting market dynamics, the industry is confronting a fundamental reality: passenger growth is no longer a reliable proxy for commercial success.

The traffic challenge

From that introduction, Steur set the session’s central questions: “If traffic alone no longer guarantees growth, what actually drives commercial spend? How do we convert more visitors into buyers? How do we create stronger engagement?”

Turning conversion into higher spend is the crucial encounter where a mixture of price and experience comes into play, and the retail challenge shifts from removing obstacles to creating motivation in the shopper’s mind.

Susset said: “Conversion increasingly depends on reducing friction and building confidence. Future success will depend on measuring engagement, not just traffic. While lower prices remain the biggest appeal factor, experience-driven motivators – wider choice and better service – are key to turning conversion into higher spend, which is where a mixture of price and experience comes into play and the duty-free challenge shifts from removing obstacles to creating motivation.”

Susset then quickly summarised the core m1nd-set data on the industry’s conflict of traffic recovery and waning footfall and conversion. She raised the added challenge that dwell behaviour at airports has become less predictable. She cited staff interaction, trust and reassurance, visibility and exclusivity as core weapons to fight these issues.

Physical retail is becoming data-driven, and travel retail needs to adopt deeper data to direct its future commercial KPIs, such as engagement rates, retail media monetisation, customer lifetime value, conversion efficiency and dwell quality.

From traffic to transaction – Somogyi guides the way.

Journey-wide engagement

Somogyi, sharing a brand perspective, said that 8 out of 10 airports miss out on converting traffic to transactions in Confectionery and Food, and argued that the industry is currently underperforming, with many airports failing to capture the full revenue potential of their passenger base. She advocated for a shift away from siloed, store-only thinking toward a holistic, traveller-centric approach: “The key shift… is to think about the travellers, put the travellers in the centre of everything that you do.” This involves engaging travellers long before they reach the airport, using digital channels to build “talkability” and brand desire… think about the travellers, understand their mood and understand what they need at each touchpoint. And think about the whole journey.”

Simpkins echoed Somogyi’s sentiment, emphasising that the customer journey begins well before the duty-free boundary. He argued that the industry often neglects the power of pre-store advertising to simplify consumer choice and build brand preference.

“It’s almost as if everyone thinks that sort of engagement with the customer and the customer journey begins when people walk through the duty-free boundary, and that’s just absolutely not the case,” he noted. He also presented research demonstrating that aggregated attention from airport advertising drives significant ROI, often tripling sales for specific product variants.

As a specialist in OOH advertising, Simkins expressed concern that the travel retail industry is not recognising the true scale of the influence of reaching the customer well before they reach the airport store on their airport journey, based on 15 years of analysis.

4Ps becomes 5Ps

Pivarcsi looked at the conflict between traffic growth and footfall decline – recommending going back to ensuring basic elements, including the still valid traditional focus on the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), created in the 1960s. She celebrated the quality of high-quality brand activations, such as the Toblerone campaigns, and the importance of engaging activities across the Budapest Airport experience.

Pivarsci then added that high passenger numbers do not guarantee retail success: “The biggest misunderstanding when it comes to conversion we experience in our own schemes because last year we reached more than twelve per cent growth in passenger numbers… and we cannot say that we are seeing double-digit growth in terms of the retail numbers.”

Danwra rounded the discussion with what she termed “five truths about trust”: Confidence – in the airport experience, providing clarity and value to the shopper; Decision – 32% of shoppers will walk away from a favoured brand after just one bad experience; Currency – attention and time; Value – up to 16% of premium customers will pay more for a great experience; and, finally, The Experience – the quality of the in-store encounter.

She emphasised that staff quality is the primary driver, regardless of demographic or generation; the core drivers of purchase behaviour remain universal: trust, connection, and belonging. She argued that the industry must humanise its approach to compete effectively.

Danwra shared a visual showing what she termed a ‘flywheel of experience’ visual model – integrating digital perception, human interaction, and purpose – and suggested that success in the future will be defined by an airport’s ability to create a seamless, trustworthy environment that resonates on a human level. She added: “I would like to add to the traditional four Ps another P, which is People. It’s very important.”

The session concluded with a clear mandate: the winners of tomorrow will be those who best understand the motivations of the traveller. By integrating data-driven insights, strategic pre-store advertising, and a commitment to human-centric service, the industry can transform the current challenges into a new era of commercial growth.