Introduction: The latest Nordic Travel Retail Group (NTRG) quarterly consumer insights report for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 hones in on differences in shopper behaviour across age segments, with a special focus on Gen Z travellers. The research from m1nd-set reveals significant room for improvement in customer engagement by sales staff in duty free stores on ferries.
NORDIC REGION. The Q4 m1nd-set NTRG report underlines considerable differences across consumer age segments in terms of footfall and conversion, with both Gen Z and seniors demonstrating lowest footfall in the duty free shops on ferries – 56% and 47% respectively – compared to Millennials (78%) and middle-aged shoppers (77%).
Millennials are the most engaged with duty free shopping onboard ferries – more than 8 out of 10 Millennial visitors purchase in-store, demonstrating a purchase rate of 66%, which is higher than other age segments.
However, the research reveals that the footfall, conversion and purchase rates are significantly lower across all age segments in airport shops.
In both airport and ferry duty free stores, Millennials are the most likely to purchase travel retail exclusives. While they have the highest tendency to purchase products for the first time in ferry duty free, in airport duty free stores they have the strongest tendency to purchase products on promotion.
The m1nd-set NTRG research demonstrates that there are no specific outliers among the age segments for the purchase drivers. Value is the top purchase driver in both ferries and airport duty free across all age segments – except for seniors for whom travel retail exclusives and differentiation is the main purchase driver in airport shops.
NTRG Chairperson and Travel Retail Norway Deputy CEO Haakon Dagestad said: “The analysis reveals that the Gen Z age segment is not highly engaged with the duty free shopping experience onboard ferries, while at airports they have a high tendency to visit the shops – although conversion remains a challenge.
“Other differences in shopper behaviour among Gen Zs are observed across the two sectors in the region, namely the purchase destination. While on ferries we see that Gen Z tends to purchase mostly for themselves, in airports they tend to purchase more for gifting.
“Purchase planning is another area where Gen Z shopper behaviour differs across the two shopping channels. Onboard ferries they tend to plan specifically and more so than all other age segments, while in airports they have a greater tendency to plan generally.”
M1nd-set CEO & Owner Peter Mohn explained: “Some of the most important learnings among all shopper insights we provide our partners is the reason for not shopping in the duty free shops, as this allows us to highlight where the key areas for improvement lie within the retail offer and experience.
“We see for example that in both airport and ferry duty free shops, assortment and price-related aspects are the key purchase barriers across all age groups.
“Interestingly, the sales staff are also quoted by all age segments among the main reasons for not purchasing inside the stores, implying a poor perception of staff engagement. 
“These findings merit more detailed analysis of the sales staff engagement and motivation training. While this is the third most quoted barrier-to-purchase in the shops on ferries, staff interaction and impact of the interaction scores very well.
“At least 80% of shoppers across all age segments reported a positive impact of staff engagement. The engagement levels in airport duty free is significantly lower across all age groups on the other hand, except for the middle-aged.” ✈
