Duty free website calls for new links with travel trade
London, UK - Duty Free on Arrival (DFOA) revealed this week a major redesign and new features such as one-click country searching for thousands of listings of arrivals duty free shops and shopper allowances worldwide. The site, with the slogan 'check before You Fly....Time on your Side' is the expanding portal for travelling shoppers and the travel trade to see in one place, for the first time, everything the traveller needs to know when weighing up different retail offers on any journey and on different modes of transport. New language versions were announced this week, now covering nine major languages.
Some 82 per cent of travellers now prefer to book and manage their travel online, according to a recent IATA survey, but only a tiny percentage of duty free goods are reserved or sold online.
With online ticket sales growing at a staggering rate and with online check-in and price comparison websites all currently booming in the travel space, Ivor Smith, Managing Director of DFOA, says that the duty free industry is a notable latecomer in this revolution. By the end of 2010 IATA has decreed that all air tickets will be bar-coded ready for mobile check-in and other new services.
“Only tour operators such as Thomson (TUI) and Thomas Cook with their airline operations and the cruise operators have really embraced the online concept. They are aggressively targeting duty free through the travel market and this trend is important because it is the travel agent who will always be the first point of contact with the traveller,” said Smith.
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DFOA is a new upgraded service that wants to lead the duty free industry in a slightly different direction, into the online world. Duty free shops have superb designs and superb brands and promotions, but the UK-based company says they appear slow in following their customers who now do most of their planning online or through mobile media, in advance of their trip and not when they arrive at the airport.
Trevor Lloyd-Jones, travel writer and duty free industry analyst says there is a general recognition that the web is changing the way people make decisions about travel, and the way they search prices, duty free allowances and availability of particular duty free items around the world. “Duty free shop operators are gradually improving their online shopping websites, but overall the duty free industry has not yet come together to decide how to tackle the Internet opportunity in a comprehensive way,” he said. “The security situation with liquids and gels and talk of more tobacco sales restrictions are meanwhile increasing the requirement for accurate shopping information online. DFOA offers a platform that many duty free operators have begun to talk about,” he added.
According to DFOA, the opportunity for the travel trade now is to reach the new groups of travellers and consumers who are increasingly searching for shops and travel destinations on the net. DFOA offers the home for the travel trade and the duty free retailers to come together onboard a new portal that takes care of all the hard searching and information queries of travelling shoppers.
“There is no reason why duty free and the travel trade cannot be more closely joined up for the benefit of the consumer,” said Smith. “Sales conversion and penetration of travellers into duty free shops is still historically low. Even with walk-through shops and the new arrivals shops, the airports’ own research from Dolby Consulting and others shows that the offer is not being communicated properly or uniformly.
“The Internet can precipitate the penetration into the shop from the moment the ticket is sold,“ he adds, “because every duty free customer needs to buy a ticket first.”
For the travel trade, travel agent, tour operators and airlines, Smith says the opportunity is for ancillary revenues generated from commissions on incremental sales of traditional duty free and other new types of products.
“We are happy to provide a home for travel operators and the duty free channel to come together,” said Smith. “It is up to the players in the industry now to come forward and seize these new opportunities. People don't go on social networking sites or blogs to find their shopping information for Bali or Barbados, but it is clear they are looking for a place to go.”
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“The buzz word in the travel industry is about ancillary revenues and slimmed down margins,” said Smith. “It seems that duty free is the original ancillary revenue that some of the travel industry has been neglecting for the past fifty years.“
With this new portal both industries can now affiliate to increase traffic and revenues.
ENDS
The Times London:
Marcus Leroux Retail Correspondent
Last updated June 10 2010 12:01AM
Directing your customers to your competitors would go against the grain for most retailers, but, then again, Asos is no ordinary retailer.
Yesterday, the rapidly expanding online fashion specialist announced that if it could not provide that must-have item, it would happily tell customers where they could get it — preferably, but not necessarily, for a commission.
Nick Robertson, the chief executive, said: “Asos is becoming not just a store, but a fashion destination. That’s the aggregator model — presenting fashion to customers that we think is fantastic but we won’t necessarily sell.”
He admitted the move was [counter-intuitive, but added: “If we don’t find it for them they will disappear off to buy it, so we might as well earn a commission.”
Mr Robertson would not be drawn on particular retailers or labels and he did not rule out linking to other store’s products without commission. “The driving principle isn’t just to make money — it’s more to engage customers,” he said.
Websites such as Polyvore and Shopstyle allow shoppers to browse and buy items from multiple retailers on a single site. On Polyvore, users create their own outfits — paper doll-style — while users of sites such as Shopstyle can browse hundreds of brands by product type. The popularity of these portals among fashionistas and the online arrival of big-name labels have been cited as the main challenges to Asos.
Shares in Asos yesterday soared 95½p, or 15 per cent, to 728p as it reported pre-tax profits of £20.3 million and improved sales growth this year. Sales rose 58 per cent in the nine weeks to May 31.
