Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2025

Why Experiential Retail in Travel Retail? OVERALL TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

DATA CHECK EXPERIENTIAL DEMAND Travelers Expect A Brand Experience In Airports, Research Shows m1nd-set’s research underlines the critical role that experiences play in travel retail, as they can signi cantly impact consumer behavior, satisfaction, and purchasing decisions. On top, experiential retail is likely to affect the whole travel experience, thus involving any stakeholder in the industry: of global travelers consider the shopping experience at airports to be an important factor in their overall travel experience 84% of global travelers reported that their overall airport experience is signi cantly in uenced by the retail options 65%

BY CAROL WARD

Why Experiential Retail in Travel Retail? PLANNING LEVEL OF PURCHASE

15%

Planned to purchase the exact product

SPECIFIC PLANNERS

30%

Planned to purchase a speci c brand

13%

Planned speci c but changed my mind

2%

70%

21%

Planned without any speci c idea

make the nal decision in-store and are therefore highly in uenceable by experiential retail. +

UNDECIDED PLANNERS In uenceable with attractive and compelling in-store elements

42%

21%

Planned with some idea in mind

Gen Z ( 80% ), Middle East & Africa ( 74% ) and Europe ( 73% )

IMPULSE BUYERS

28%

xperiential retail offerings can be a catalyst to increasing footfall and purchasing rates in

towards exploring and trying to find new things,” he said, noting that shopping due to price advantage has slipped behind the experiential impact. The data shows that the price advantage that drove duty free shopping in the past has shrunk as consumers can access deals in various other ways. Instead, travelers are showing increasing willingness to browse to discover items to purchase. They want inviting and attractive retail offerings and they’re looking for the latest new products. In fact, data indicates that more than two thirds of travelers (70%) make the final purchase decision in-store, and are therefore highly influenceable by experiential retail.

E

airport retail, new data from Switzerland based travel retail research firm m1nd set . In fact, the firm’s research shows that the in-store experience is now the number-one driver to purchase, eclipsing the price advantage that once drove purchasing. Peter Mohn, owner and CEO of m1nd set, presented the findings at the recent 2025 Summit of the Americas travel retail show held by the International Association of Airport and Duty Free Stores. “Browsing and other factors have increased – we can actually see a trend

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AX NEWS MAY 2025