More and more travellers to find their airport duty-free online

The Publication Business Insider has just published an article stating the Apple wish to buy into the social commerce site The Fancy, apparently to secure a slice of the growing e-commerce market and also to maximise their iTunes customer base. The Fancy is a fledgling rival to Pinterest, who are leading this social commerce sector. Both sites intend to link their users directly to transactions.

The sister site to this blog dutyfreeonarrival a global shopping portal for travellers wishing to find shops at their destination, has seen an interesting growth in travel retail searches during the last 9 months.

Ivor Smith Founder of the web site said "We offer a destination based service for travelling shoppers and since we started this portal in 2008 it has been interesting to watch how the search strings have developed. This year, we can see how consumers want to find more specific information such as prices, brand selection and pre-order links, rather than just making general searches for airport dutyfree. This is especially noticeable for cigarettes and tobaccos, now that stringent customs restrictions are being enforced. It would seem that consumers wish to extend their on-line price comparison and pre-order habit (acquired on the high street), to travel retail."

A recent Travel Insights survey by Singapore based Abacus International highlights the on-line and mobile growth trend for specific destination based information, talking about a 61% growth rate in Asia for online travel searches. They also highlight similar success and growth for low-cost airlines, such as AirAsia.

Smith added "Duty-free is part of the travel business as every customer in this market is a traveller who must buy a ticket first, before they can shop. Almost all airline passengers will soon need to buy their tickets and then check-in online, so it is logical that this pre-planning, searching and pre-ordering growth will continue."

Abacus summed up the situation stating "Technology is outpacing every industry". For duty free shopping, it seems that the consumer is waiting for the retailers to catch up.

To find your airport, airline, ship or ferry store .. check before you fly!