The impulse buyer at the gate no longer speaks for the whole category. A 2026 study by a travel retail research agency found that 42 per cent of duty free shoppers buying to take goods home now decide what to buy before they leave, days or weeks before the flight.
That decision is now formed online, before the traveller even reaches the terminal. The same study also found that the strategic shopper spends more on average than the impulse buyer. They even fill a higher-value basket, led by electronics, alcohol, make-up and watches.
Strategic shoppers actually spend more than impulse buyers
The traveller who plans which duty free products they buy before flying spends close to a quarter more on average than the one who decides on the day. These strategic planners also skew to higher-value categories.
Home-bound buyers over-index on electronics (47 per cent), makeup (46 per cent), jewellery and alcohol (both 45 per cent). Trip-use buyers lean the other way, towards media, travel accessories and food.
That’s why the owner and chief executive of m1nd-set, Dr Peter Mohn, said brands must ‘shift their marketing schedule forward to connect with travellers prior to their departure’.
Pre-ordering online changes how travellers buy
Pre-ordering duty free moves the purchase off the shop floor and onto the phone. A traveller browses the range at home, pays online and collects on their way through the terminal. It’s the click-and-collect model, now standard in wider retail.
Melbourne Airport already has the model running. Arriving and departing international travellers can pre-order on Laneway, Melbourne Airport’s online duty free platform, up to 60 days before their flight. They then collect their order at Terminal 2. The range covers spirits, wine, fragrance, skin care, chocolates and more.
This model suits the strategic shopper especially well. Someone who has already decided can reserve the exact item at home and collect it on the way through, the choice already made.
Arriving passengers are driving the shift
In Australia, the move to pre-ordering is led by arriving passengers, for a practical reason. An arriving traveller who pre-ordered a bottle or two of duty free wine collects them on the way in. A departing traveller who buys airside carries the goods through the rest of the journey.
Laneway shows that exact pattern. Around 90 per cent of its customers are arriving in Melbourne rather than leaving, the reverse of the traditional departures model. And the market is big and growing.
Melbourne Airport handled 11,953,262 international passengers in 2024-25, up 8.3 per cent on the year before. As arrivals keep climbing, the planned purchase they favour climbs with them.
The market behind the shift keeps growing
Tourism Research Australia forecasts international visitor spend in Australia will reach $46 billion by 2030, up from a record $32.9 billion in 2024. As that inbound spend climbs, so does the planned online purchase, now driving the higher-value duty free basket.
The near-term pace is quicker still. The same forecasts put the rise in international spend at 15 per cent in 2025. That growth is landing where the higher-value shopper already sits, in the planned purchase made before departure.
