Travel retail …let’s keep update!

In recent years, international travels have boomed, speeding the travel retail as a crucial factor for a fashion luxury business. Nowadays, the widespread of uncertain geopolitical and economic situations start to challenge the travel retail channel. Given this threating reality, what is going to happened to this lucrative stores?

Terrorism impacts travel retail this year. After the French and German attacks, the so-called Heritage Europe is not a sought-after destination. People are becoming warier of visiting it. Therefore, it is likely that fashion and luxury sector will suffer over the medium-term. In other words, consumers’ travel patterns and purchasing attitudes are subjected to an important change. Therefore, this market is facing a period of volatility where it is not easy to handle consumers travelling paths and, consequently, it is increasingly difficult to forecast their purchases. it is sure that a brand may be influenced by such things in some parts of the world at a certain time. A disturbing scenario is expected coming from this global instability. How can luxury companies manage it in the most efficient way?

Luxury brands can properly respond to it creating the right offer wherever the travelers are. In the travel retail market, airport malls account for the majority. However, the travel shopping environment is larger, including also border and downtown shops. It makes sense to be both at the airport and in the city center as tourists may have more chances to spend during their overall trip.
One of the main points for these players is a focus on travelers’ identities to know better what kind of people are leaving and where they are going. These consumers have to be analyzed in terms of behaviors, demographics, and not only geographies. Another critical feature is to build a spread presence as regional diversities help to be less sensitive to terrorism events, external shocks and financial crises. Having different market nationalities in its own bunch increases the fulfilment of the biggest and aspirational spender passengers.

We know that travel retail is a great opportunity but the current context requires to build an appropriate strategy based on a worldwide business area and on a higher level of flexibility, without forgetting that consumers are placing a lot of value on experience.