Tax Free World Association (TFWA) have released a new report on watches and jewelry in partnership with Counter Intelligence Retail.
Interviewing approximately 1,000 shoppers from four key international airports (with at least 50% of them duty-free buyers), the report found that 78 percent purchased a product from a brand that they did not typically buy from.
Moreover, 40% of consumers purchased from the brand via travel retail for the first time, and 70% claimed to have no prior knowledge of that particular brand.
These stats show just how effective duty-free and travel retail shopping is for brands to gain exposure and sales from first-time consumers.
Additionally, many consumers shopping at a duty-free shop are actually gift shopping for someone else.
“The watches and jewelry category in global duty-free and travel retail was valued at $5.7 billion in 2015,” said Erik Juul-Mortensen, president of TFWA, in a statement.
“However, the sector needs to do more to turn the very substantial amount of watches and jewelry browsers into buyers as currently about one in seven airport shoppers visit the category but only 5 percent buy,” he said.
Due to high consumer demand and affordable travel rates, the duty-free retail sector is expected to reach approximately US$98 billion in revenue by 2019.
(Source: Luxury Daily)