Airport Experience® News - Retail & Services Issue 2025

“Success in any airport specialty retail category hinges on three essentials: compelling visuals, competitive pricing, and highly engaged staff,” Rauba adds. “Unlike food and beverage, apparel purchases are often impulse driven, so retailers must work harder to attract busy DEN travelers. Success depends on hiring and developing passionate team members who know their products and act as brand ambassadors,” adds Rauba. “During onboarding, PRI coaches its new merchants to build loyal, motivated teams who tell their brand’s story with enthusiasm and authenticity. When travelers feel that connection, they’re much more likely to make a purchase and share their positive experience with others.” Rauba notes that in order for customers to make a purchase, however, they’ll need enough dwell time to do so. WH Smith North America chief development officer Roderick McOwan agrees. “We have seen large hubs such as DFW and DEN reduce connection times between flights,” McOwan says. “It is difficult to ask the consumer to take a look at in-line apparel stores, which is traditionally a ‘shopping’ experience, short of the essentials that the business traveler may need.” McOwan believes that to combat the challenge of in-line locations, “market style stores allow for greater brand presence without the 500-750 square foot, four-wall approach, which can be difficult to make a return on the initial investment.” He adds that “the availability of most apparel brands online means that there has to be a large or very large brand appeal on an impulse basis. That’s tough unless you are in an international terminal with long dwell times, and or in a duty-free or mixed retail environment.” WH Smith North America, which operates apparel brands such as Hugo Boss, Cotopaxi, tentree and Tumi as well as products sold through collaborations with the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Musicians Hall of Fame, believes that for apparel retail to be successful, “brands and operators really have to look at the location, given that secondary locations just don’t see the volume of passengers required to drive the level of sales needed

Left, Below: Clothing that captures a local vibe – such as ChiBoys at O’Hare International Airport or Nashville Threads at Nashville International Airport – often resonates with travelers looking to embrace the unique fashion characteristics of a city or region.

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AX NEWS SEPTEMBER 2025