When it comes to flying, the days of having few choices beyond eating a soggy sandwich or browsing magazines until the boarding call are thankfully behind us.
And with many airports, such as Singapore’s Changi Airport, becoming almost destinations in their own right, jet-setters are understandably demanding better services.
As airports modernise, so to have the retailers who are using technology to make the most of their captive audience.
Analysing the airport retail trends we’re likely to see in 2020, GlobalData are predicting technology to play a big role in the customer experience, citing the personal shopper service at Heathrow and JFK Airport’s VR tools to help passengers locate stores, they say the next year is shaping up for some exciting developments.
They spoke with four retail experts to get the low down on what we can expect, with the trend towards using customer experience and operational data to provide retailers are better platform to tailor customer experiences, according to SAP UK’s Shane Finlay.
While AOE CEO and founder Kian Gould said there will be an increased trend towards luxury travel purchases from customers choosing to purchase items at airports. And towards third-party e-commerce platforms like WeChat and pre-travel duty-free platform Fliggy Buy becoming more common.
Pioneer Group director Mark Childerhouse said retailers would need to offer either convenience or a luxury experience to lure customers, especially for the business traveler.
Hellenic Duty Free Shops SA George Velentzas said the customer profile for duty free had evolved from those with lower budgets to customers seeking luxury or unique buys and duty-free stores needed to look to offer localised products.