All images courtesy of The Design Solution.
Imagine you are a retailer on any high street in Britain, when your shop is at bursting point you lock the doors for a minimum of two hours, usually three, and you have these consumers all to yourself. Is this retail Heaven? Imagine the shock when you re‐open the doors and let them out and only 26% have spent money over and above a cup of coffee and a newspaper! Welcome to airport retailing. There are obviously differences in customer profiles, a “Shopper” wants to shop and a “Passenger” primarily just wants to get on the plane and go. Airport retailing and Duty Free in particular are strange retailing beasts; on one hand only 26% spend money but that can range from a bottle of whisky at a few pounds right up to a watch costing a hundred thousand dollars. What on earth is going on? A good example of how airport retailing has rapidly changed is WHSmith, a stalwart of transport retailing. Up until the late Eighties they sold everything as long as it was made of paper. Fast forward to today, the shops have a very high spec design, books have been given their own shop and the whole retailing procedure has changed ‐ rapid sales for newspapers and a more leisurely activity for books. This was the start of the most dramatic retailing changes seen, built on design of a very high spec, master‐ planning of the retail environment, and interaction with the traveller with Duty Free leading the way.
Duty Free, in Europe first had a problem when politicians interfered with the Tax regimes which the passenger still has not grasped to this day as David Redington, Senior designer at The Design Solution explained. “I don’t think they know that there is ‘Tax Free’ and there is ‘Duty Free’, it is just that they know there are cheaper products. I have noticed that some airports and Duty Free retailers have an exploratory page on their websites. There is the perception you have to be leaving the EU to make significant savings but that only applies to liquor and tobacco, most goods are much cheaper than the high street.” Duty Free used to be small, pack it high, sell it cheap and as for design and service ‐ forget it! The transformation has been rapid and is still going on as Robbie Gill, Director of The Design Solution and architect of some of the most successful airport retailing environments around the world comments. “It really started about ten years ago with ‘the walk through’ principle. At Heathrow T3 was a good start. A walk‐through allowed for larger format shops which in turn called for different retailing methods such as ‘product clustering’. This made it easier for the passenger to navigate and the bigger
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