Duty Free Innovation launches Travel-Safe Shopping Kit for airports and retailers

Sustainable retail specialist Duty Free Innovation has launched an initiative to help reassure travelers and encourage shopping, as plans for post lockdown recovery gain momentum.

Although detailed plans for the return of regular air travel and the opening of airports have yet to be set out, strict measures on social distancing and sanitization will likely be the new normal.

With recent industry research from m1ndset stating that more than 60% of travelers will not interact with retail staff and half will not touch products, the outlook for a speedy recovery in sales revenues looks bleak.

 To help support these new safe-guarding measures and reassure passengers, DFI has created a Travel-Safe Shopping kit for airports and retailers. The kit contains one of DFI’s recycled hands-free shopping bags, a branded face mask, disposable gloves and a sanitizing wipe.

DFI concept visual. Branding for illustrative purposes only.

The bag has a sleeve to slide over a passengers’ trolley case handles and contains the items for passengers to use and wear. With the bag being hands-free, it reduces contact and minimizes the risk of contamination.

According to DFI, the concept is to give every passenger one of the travel kits.

The hands-free bag attaches to luggage. Branding for illustrative purposes only.

DFI spokesperson Simon Best says “The hands-free bag is designed to be used as a replacement for shopping baskets and provides each passenger with a reusable shopping bag for all their purchases on their journey. This will help reduce contact points in the airport with the rest of the kit giving travelers comfort to moving around and shop freely without unnecessary risk to other passengers and airport staff.”

DFI says it already has received interest from some key airport locations: “They will have a duty of care to their passengers, and these kits will help to give vital reassurance that everything is being done to care for their safety and will allow them to use the airport and shop in retail/F&B outlets as normally as possible.

“This will both reduce levels of anxiety and risk of contamination,” said Best.

Since the bag is made from recycled plastic, DFI believes that its kit will also fit with the post-COVID shopper mindset for more sustainable and environmentally focused products. The DFI bags are made from recycled ocean-bound plastic that has been recovered from the waste system.

The initiative provides a potential opportunity for brand tie-ins, as well.

“While we anticipate the cost of these kits would be met by governments and airport authorities as part of their measures to reignite the airport economy in a safe manner, we also see that this could be a fantastic opportunity for big brands to get involved – the exposure and positive PR that the kits would generate for the brand will be phenomenal,” said Best.

For more information, contact simon@dutyfreeinnovation.com or garry@dutryfreeinnovation.com