Our Netivot Center may be lacking in attractions for the well-being of travelers, but when it comes to sales per square meter, the storesDuty Free (approximately 7,500 shekels per square meter in Terminal 3 only), Ben Gurion Airport It is in the top five in the world, after duty free at airports in Dubai, London (Heathrow), Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Korea.
In terms of passenger traffic, this is an airport that is considered medium - about 14 million passengers passed through it last year (an airport with 15 million passengers or more is considered large).
If we judge the situation also based on the income of Airports Authority From commercial activity - NIS 1.314 billion in 2013 - it seems that the duty-free complex at Ben Gurion Airport doesn't need to "go crazy" to encourage passengers to open their wallets, like, for example, Singapore's main airport, which is considered the best airport in the world and is currently holding a raffle: Buy for $30 at the various stores at the airport or through the airport's website - and you might win a million dollars.
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Yoram Shapira, VP of the Commerce Division at the Airports Authority, attributes the dizzying success of Israeli duty-free to the variety of stores and their accessible and visual structure. "The duty-free stores are located around a rotunda, a square. This round structure - unlike stores in many airports around the world that are built lengthwise - has high economic efficiency per square meter. With us, it's 100% visual exposure and short walking distances from store to store.".
Ben Gurion Airport Director Shmuel Zakai adds: "Just because we are in the top five doesn't mean we don't need to do much more. In this context, the main concessionaire of the Airports Authority, James Richardson, is in the planning stages of renovating the main store at Ben Gurion Airport, which will completely change the shopping experience at the store.
""The product mix in the store will automatically adapt itself to the passenger mix. For example, if it is known that flights to New York depart between midnight and 1:00 a.m., then the product mix in the store will adapt itself between those hours, with the help of a sophisticated system, to the target audience flying to that destination. The products will change in this way several times a day.".
Zakai adds that today the perception of airports around the world, called Future travel experience, is that an airport is no longer just a means of transporting passengers from one place to another, but part of the passenger's travel experience. "Therefore, the effort of all airports, for commercial reasons, is to provide the best possible experience," says Shapira.
- Why not integrate stores in the field that offer prices much lower than what currently exists?
Shapira: "An airport is not a market. You can't sell for 5 shekels. You have to maintain positioning. On the other hand, it's important to maintain attractive price levels for the passenger and also offer luxury products to those who have a penny in their pocket.".
""Indeed, you can find products in stores that cost from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, for example for an alcoholic beverage. It's not for nothing that Ben Gurion Airport is ranked among the top 5 airports in the world in the following indicators: duty-free sales volume, sales volume per passenger, sales per square meter, and product variety.".
Stimulate the senses
Sensory manipulation is a marketing method that works, and works well. Many commercial companies, including fields and airlines, use smells, lighting, and music on their way to our pockets. At Ben Gurion Airport, for example, the famous fountain in the center of the rotunda was placed not only for its beauty, but to instill a sense of calm in us.
""The sound of flowing water brings peace to people, and peace is good forShopping"", says Shapira. He also says that, unlike shopping malls, it is not customary to play background music in airports to allow people to hear the announcement in the field and be reassured that they will not miss their flight. "The fountain is the music of the field," he says.
Ben Gurion Airport, like every major airport, has its own stress graph. "This is a graph that examines the passenger's stress level from the moment he gets ready for the trip at home to the moment he boards the plane," says Shapira. "The graph clearly shows that all the stress of arriving at the airport, parking, security checks, and border control is released the moment he reaches duty-free. That's why it's important to create as pleasant an atmosphere there as possible.".
And not just through the sound of splashing water. In the duty-free complex, we are also manipulated through our sense of sight: the daylight shining from the gaping skylight above the rotunda, it turns out, improves our mood. "Daylight affects mood, and a good mood is good for shopping," says Shapira.
The sense of smell is also not absent. A new bakery recently opened in the reception hall in Terminal 3, which emits bakery smells that are impossible to remain indifferent to, and for this very reason, according to Shapira, it is a resounding success.
The scents also reach the skies. Singapore Airlines patented a fragrance called Stefan Floridian Waters in the late 1990s. The scent, which some describe as "the smell of home," permeates not only its fleet of aircraft but also its Dahlia, and has become one of its hallmarks. "We shop with all five of our senses, and that was taken into account when designing the terminal," says Shapiro.
Coming soon: Hotel at Ben Gurion Airport
The Airports Authority is currently working on characterizing the terms of a tender, which will be announced soon, for the construction of a hotel near Terminal 3. "The hotel will serve several types of passengers: business people arriving for short periods of time, air crews, tourists who land here late at night, and Israelis who are forced to stay at the airport due to a flight delay," says Shapira.
The hotel will be business-oriented and will offer services such as meeting and conference rooms, a fitness center, an indoor pool, a dining room and a bar, for $100-150 per night.
""We don't want it to be an $800-a-night hotel. The price should be affordable," says Shapira.
Unlike the Hilton Hotel at Gatwick Airport in England, which has corridors connecting it to the train that leads directly into the terminal, the hotel at Ben Gurion Airport will be located a short walk from the terminal.
When do you buy and how much do you spend?
It turns out that night is the preferred shopping time: James Richardson says that most shopping takes place at night, between 3:00 and 6:00; Optica also says that the most people buy at 4:00 in the morning. Stern reports that people shop at all hours of the day and night, even in the early morning; and the jewelers' chain feels that there is a lot of shopping activity in the evening, when the shoppers are mainly tourists.
And how much money did we leave at duty-free in July-August? There is still no data that summarizes all the expenses. At James Richardson, they say that the average shopping basket in July-August was $180 per person (about 630 shekels); at Stern, they talk about an average of 5,000 shekels per purchase; and at the goldsmiths' chain, they say that in light of the sparse traffic at Ben Gurion Airport during "Protective Edge," total sales in July-August were about a million shekels, with an average transaction per person being 1,500 shekels.
The customer is captive, he is in a hurry, and has no way to find out prices online.
In most cases, you will only find out the prices of products in duty-free when you arrive at the airport. Want to know how much the perfume you plan to buy costs? Search the James Richardson website and you won't find it. Want to know how much sunglasses will cost at Opticana? Go to the website and you won't find it.
Completely disconnected from the consumer culture of the 21st century - the one in which the consumer conducts preliminary market research online to choose the right product for him at an affordable price - duty-free stores force the consumer to buy under conditions of great uncertainty. Is the deal he is about to make the most profitable for him at that moment? Absolutely not, but he will only know this if he has checked all the prices of all the products he is interested in at home in advance.
In fact, customers at Ben Gurion Airport are in an ideal situation from the store's perspective - they are captive customers, there are no competing stores in the complex, they are under time pressure not to miss their flight, and they feel like they have a "one-time opportunity." When you add to all this their starting assumption, that the price is low because the product is tax-exempt, you understand why we leave so much money there.
The shops in the duty-free complex
■ Alcohol, Cigarettes and Cosmetics: James Richardson
■ Electronics and Music: A.L.M.
■ Clothing and Sports: James Richardson Sportswear; Jack Kuba Underwear; Emporium; Factory 54
■ Sweets: Chocolate
■ Gifts, jewelry, fashion: The Goldsmiths; H. Stern; Victoria's Secret; Michal Negrin
■ Cellular: Mobile Global Cellular
■ Optics: Opticana
