L’Oréal Travel Retail recently brought together two generations of L’Oréal Travel Retail Chief Digital Officers – Branislav Peric (circa 2015) and Sam Crossman (2025) – during a LinkedIn Live event titled ‘10 Years of Travel Retail: Then & Now’.
The 30-minute session on 13 October, moderated by WITH Group Managing Partner Michael Chrisment, explored how digital innovation has reshaped the travel retail beauty landscape over the past decade.
Peric, currently Group Managing Director at WITH Group, reflected on his tenure as one of L’Oréal Travel Retail’s early digital architects, a period defined by dynamic growth. “We were running at +15% organic growth per year,” he recounted. “Travel Retail was doubling in size every seven years roughly in those days. L’Oréal Travel Retail, with that big market share, was catching that tailwind more than anyone else.
“Now, imagine me, in those shoes, trying to figure out a transformation roadmap for that healthy business.
“When you’re managing a complex system that’s already performing well, pragmatism is essential,” Peric added. “The challenge lies in introducing meaningful actions that aren’t over-engineered yet still deliver measurable impact. No small feat in an environment as diverse as travel retail, spanning multiple countries, languages and brands.”
Speaking on the 2012-2015 era, he recalled the rise of pre-trip engagement and early partnerships with online travel agencies (OTA) such as Ctrip, as well as the initial forays into data sharing and pre-order models.
“Looking back to 2012, I decided to focus on two priorities: pre-trip engagement and the early development of data and ecommerce. Pre-trip was largely uncharted territory at the time, so we began by identifying the nationalities most inclined toward planned purchases: Chinese, Brazilian and Russian travellers, our so-called ‘global shoppers’. We also forged early partnerships with OTAs such as Ctrip.
“Ecommerce was also emerging,” he added. “In Korea, The Shilla Duty Free and Lotte Duty Free’s pre-order businesses were already outperforming Sephora.com. Outside Asia, however, pre-ordering was still in its infancy. I believed then, and still do, that post-COVID consumer shifts and Millennial shopping habits would make these models increasingly viable.
“In short, the 2012-2015 period was about targeting global shoppers, developing pre-trip strategies and laying the groundwork for data and ecommerce. Before leaving L’Oréal to launch WITH Group, I helped establish the foundations for Product Content Management and enhanced learning for beauty advisors: initiatives that my successors continued to build on.”
Fast-forward to 2025 and Crossman described a markedly different digital landscape – one where travellers are digital nomads and brand engagement spans the entire journey.
“Today’s travel retail landscape is defined by a digital-first consumer, shaped by the fast-paced, attention-fragmented TikTok era. Travellers are no longer seeking offers alone: they want experiences, entertainment and emotional connection. The true transformation, however, lies in data collaboration and activation, loyalty tie-ins and precision media.
“L’Oréal’s strategy now spans the full traveller journey from pre-trip inspiration to in-airport engagement and post-trip reactivation. Yet, much remains experimental, particularly in connecting online and offline data, measuring ROI and balancing always-on strategies with campaign-based approaches.
He added: “Competition from domestic markets is intensifying; and while ecommerce continues to thrive in Asia Pacific, scaling this model globally remains a key challenge.”
Looking to the decade ahead, Crossman described how artificial intelligence (AI) is set to redefine the boundaries of personalisation and engagement in travel retail. He highlighted the technology’s growing role not only in creative development and media strategy but in shaping how brands interact with travellers across new digital touchpoints
“As a group, we’ve started investing heavily in AI and in empowering marketers and digital teams to harness its capabilities,” he explained. “Our focus is increasingly on tailored, personalised content, using AI to deliver relevance at scale. The ability to adapt messaging to each traveller – based on who they are, where they’re going, and what we know about them – will be critical.
“From an AI perspective, the future lies in dynamically generated content and media planning powered by AI systems. Looking ahead, we’ll also need to consider new interfaces, such as AI travel agents. If a traveller books a flight through an AI assistant that handles all trip communications, where does a brand like ours connect within that journey?
“We may soon be targeting not just travellers themselves, but also the AI agents acting on their behalf.
“It’s both exciting and daunting. But the potential of dynamic personalisation at scale – with hundreds of thousands of unique content variations – will define the next frontier for travel retail marketing.”
Despite the decade separating their tenures as Chief Digital Officers of L’Oréal Travel Retail, both Peric and Crossman shared a common conviction: that effective data collaboration remains the key to unlocking the next phase of growth for the travel retail channel.
Peric said: “Back in my time, data sharing across travel retail players was rare and difficult to execute, but the potential was already clear. Combined insights from airports, airlines and retailers could reveal nearly everything about shopper behaviour along with valuable contextual information.
“The recent initiatives announced by TFWA President Philippe Marguerite in Cannes show just how far the industry has come in realising that vision.”
“When I first joined L’Oréal Travel Retail, we talked a lot about siloed data,” Crossman echoed. “There’s a wealth of valuable data out there, governed by legislation in many regions, but still rich with potential to target travellers at the right moment in the right way.
“That said, change is essential. It’s not just a question of whether we can collaborate more effectively, we must. Major stakeholders such as brands, retailers and airlines need to take a leap and find win-win solutions that create value for all parties, while ultimately keeping the traveller at the centre.
“Without clear value for the consumer, the model simply won’t work.” ✈
