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With its strong focus on promotions, special deals, best-sellers and the enticing prospect of its car raffle draw, the site reflects the excitement of shopping in Middle East duty free |
Website of the week: Muscat Duty Free
Muscat Duty Free is operated under a 50:50 joint venture formed between Aer Rianta International-Middle East and Oman Aviation Services. It manages and operates all duty free shops within the Departures and Arrivals areas at Seeb International Airport.
Style
Muscat Duty Free describes itself as ‘Oman’s Own Duty Free Zone’, a claim backed by its colourful, lively website. With its strong focus on promotions, special deals, best-sellers and the enticing prospect of its car raffle draw the site reflects the excitement of shopping in Middle East duty free.
The site is busy, with many eye-catching features competing for readers’ attention, particularly on the home page. It is also one of the few bi-lingual duty free websites anywhere in the industry.
Content and usability
With so many features packed onto a vibrant home page, readers could be forgiven for not knowing where to start. A brief Introduction focuses on the shopping opportunity at Seeb International Airport, but the visitor is instantly and deliberately drawn to the impressive product showcasing.
A Featured Product section promotes one product on the home page – in this case an Azzaro Pour Homme edt – but this is just a taste of the promotions on offer. Click through to Great Deals and there are promotions across every category, with free gwps or multi-purchase opportunities.
Travellers planning a trip can also search the site by category or brand. The home page lists the categories by Department, under the headings Confectionery, Cosmertics & Skincare, Liquor, Perfumes, Tobacco and Watches. In a useful addition, each section then carries the full range of products listed in the shop by sub-category. For instance, in Tobacco you can search a particular brand under Cigars, Cigarettes, Rolling Tobacco, Chewing Tobacco or Pipe Tobacco.
Every product listed has a brief description and a photo attached, plus prices in local currency and in US Dollars.
If site visitors still haven’t found what they’re looking for, there’s the additional option of choosing a product from the Best Sellers list on the home page. This features a small selection of items on promotion, which can be ordered online by registered members of the website. The retailer also reminds travellers that they can pre-order on departure and collect on arrival home.
No Middle East duty free website would be complete without the opportunity to buy a ticket for a car raffle, and Muscat Duty Free doesn’t disappoint. The raffle draw plays a key role in building awareness of and interest in the shopping offer, and the regular raffle receives pride of place in a special section on the home page. You can even buy a ticket online by registering with the retailer. Just to entice the visitor further, there is an updated list of how many tickets remain available.
A list of former winners, and their prizes, can be found on the website too.
Where too many other duty free websites fail to provide sufficient information beyond the basic product showcase, Muscat Duty Free reassures the visitor with its attention to detail. Under Contact Us can be found not only details of the company headquarters and customer services, but also a map of the Seeb Airport terminal and a Feedback form. Other useful buttons includes FAQs, Allowances, Latest News and Advertising, plus another chance to enter the Raffle draw. Reinforcing its image as a full-service site, it also carries useful information about Oman, including helpful hints about places to visit and how to get around.
What we like:
Comprehensive product showcase
Attention to detail
Easy navigation
Focus on promotions
What we think needs improving/adding:
A local flavour to the website and online offer
Visit Muscat Duty Free.
COMING SOON: The Moodie Report Travel Retail Worldwide Web Awards.
Sponsored by P&G Prestige Products
Which websites offer the best service to consumers? Which are most user-friendly? Which are the most stylish? And which, crucially, offer the greatest incentive to shop?
Every year we will judge, through a combination of industry polling, consumer opinion and specialist judges, who is doing most to wow travellers on the web. International and regional awards.
The main award – Travel Retail Website of the Year – will be unveiled at this year’s ‘Oscars’ of the industry: the Frontier Awards in Cannes. More details coming soon.
MORE WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Website of the week: Qatar Airways – 22/08/06
Website of the week: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – 16/08/06
Website of the week: Copenhagen Airport Tax-Free Shop – 09/08/06
