Shopping in malls and online is different from duty free. The interventions, needs and expectations associated are different. There was a need to cater to locals and visitors alike in Dubai Duty Free for an iconic beauty brand. The client also wanted to understand the customer buying behavior for fragrances among the travelers at the Dubai Airport Terminals.

A comprehensive integrated Qualitative & Quantitative approach was taken to meet the research objectives. The study was conducted as a 2- step approach including In-Situ observation and the Exit Interviews at Dubai airport duty free shops, to give insights around purchase decision journey as well as a detailed diagnostic on their shopping habits for fragrances.

For the qualitative, a pre-work among travellers was conducted followed by shadow shopping at the duty-free using eye tracking followed by an exit interview with a reconvened visit of the duty free. The pre work was conducted using WhatsApp diaries. Mobile Eye Tracking was conducted to identify packaging, interventions and shopping behaviour.

The quantitative exit interviews were conducted among mix of nationalities including Asians, Arabs and Westerners respondents.

• Profiles of audiences were created based on the kind of shoppers.
• Inputs on product placement, pricing and range were also provided
• Unique role of shopping Interventions were also recommended

The client wanted to evaluate a new merchandising unit – is it able to help make the overall shopping experience more consumer friendly.

The merchandising unit was set up in a test mall in Dubai & Riyadh. This was compared to existing unit at a control store in Dubai & Riyadh.

An integrated Quantitative non-intrusive shopper observation followed by a Qualitative intercept interview

Design: Observers at key entry points to the store to get a count of the number of people entering the store, those who pass by the merchandising unit, those who stopped by unit & those who shopped at the unit. This was followed by intercept interviews among those who didn’t notice the unit, those who stopped but didn’t buy & those who stopped & purchased a product. The intercept interviews included a re-walk through the store to re-trace the entire shopping journey.

The research helped the client understand the difference in approach to shopping across the two markets. It brought to the fore the differences by nationalities & their dependence on the brand ambassadors. These insights showed that the shoppers prefer to depend on the brand ambassadors for their advice & their interaction with the merchandising unit was minimal.

The insights were used by the Shopper Insight team to scrap the launch of the new unit as it didn’t suit the shoppers in the Middle East.