Airport Retail Research Articles

Customer service and airport retail: Stimulate passenger spending

What is the main reason for airports? The obvious answer, of course, is to enable people to fly. So why bother with retailing? The answer is equally simple — money. Many airports worldwide now make higher revenues from non-aeronautical services and facilities than from landing/airline fees. People fly more frequently, and flying itself has become a commodity through the rapid expansion of low-cost airlines. Once the preserve of airports, global fashion brands can now be found in many downtown locations, removing the uniqueness of this airport shopping experience. The price advantage for airports in Europe has been eroded by the demise of duty free and the move of focus away from material goods to spending on leisure activities. So can airport managers be expected to raise these levels of revenue? Pragma Consulting has undertaken passenger research into attitudes to processes at over 20 airports worldwide, collecting the views of over 30,000 passengers and offering some answers to these issues.

The appropriate scale of US airport retail activities

Terminal-based retail has been sufficiently successful that many airport operators are considering enlarging their facilities in order to increase revenues. On the basis of data on the retail sales and rental revenues for 75 of the US's most important passenger airports, we demonstrate the significant impact of passenger demography on the volume and nature of airport retail sales. A method is outlined for combining information on the demography of passenger flows with construction costs in order to evaluate appropriate capital investments for terminal retail expansions.

The importance of impulse purchasing behaviour in the international airport environment

AbstractAirports are unique retail environments due to the environmental and psychological issues linked with the travel process. Travellers experience feelings of anxiety, stress and excitement which make them react in unusual ways. Airport retail environments therefore differ from more day‐to‐day channels of distribution. Consequently, retailers' approaches must also differ in order to maximise performance. There is evidence of a considerable impulse purchasing effect in airport retail operations which, if understood and harnessed by airport retailers, can enhance performance. The impulse effects will differ significantly between customer segments due to both the psychological effects of the travel experience and the existence of normative traits. Retailers must create an environment that minimises inherent stress and accentuates or at least maintains natural levels of excitement, while also virtuously motivating impulse purchasing by reducing or eliminating barriers to purchase. Development of an impulse strategy, which should permeate all elements of airport retail activities, is essential for maximising performance and profitability. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.

Airport Retailing: Examining Airline Passengers' Impulsive Shopping Behaviour

ABSTRACT Airports are ostensibly designed and built to fulfil the behavioural and psychological needs of airline passengers and other users. As a retail location, airports offer consumers a wide variety of facilities and customer satisfaction with the airport retail offering depends on the manner in which airline passengers experience the airport environment (Hackett and Foxall, 1997). Airport retailing is characteristically related to airport environmental conditions (Omar and Kent, 2001). This paper presents empirical evidence that airline passengers' self-assessment about the appropriateness of engaging in impulse shopping behaviour moderate the relationship between the airport influences on impulse shopping and passengers' behaviour. The research questioned two hundred and fifty-two (252) passengers and found that the relationship between airport impulsive shopping and the related shopping behaviour is significant only when airline passengers believe that acting on impulse is appropriate. This finding...