The She Economy Is Now Running Travel Retail. Are You Designing For Her?
5 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
This is not just another think-piece. It’s a do-list for every player in travel retail – airport operators, duty-free retailers, luxury brands, airlines and DMOs. Why? Because the customer has changed. It’s now the She Economy that sets the pace: she researches upstream on RED (Xiaohongshu) and Douyin, compares by reflex, and still wants human help at the point of truth. If your part of the journey can’t show proof in one scan and assistance within ten metres, then you’re leaking sales.
If you are after the Chinese She Economy market, then the guidelines that follow clearly spell out what each stakeholder must change in the next twelve weeks. This is a great feature from Subramania Bhatt, CEO, China Trading Desk, whose detailed and actionable playbook merits serious attention from all parties.
Across China Trading Desk’s 2025 tracking, a clear picture has emerged. Women are the centre of gravity in China’s outbound recovery: they make up the majority of travellers overall, and the skew intensifies in Gen-Z. In our Q2 2025 Gen-Z cut, 63.8% of respondents were female. Decision-making is mobile, social, and late-funnel: roughly 76% of travellers book within a month of departure (nearly 80% for Gen-Z), yet the research that drives conversion occurs upstream on RED and Douyin. The She Economy is no longer a “segment”. It’s the operating system for airport retail. Simply put, in a world where she researches upstream and validates in public, “Proof is the product. Assistance is the differentiator.”
There’s also a deeper cultural driver: “悦己第一” — self-reward first. The younger lifestyle work shows self-soothing and emotional pay-off have moved from indulgence to necessity. That affects what she buys (wellness, beauty, comfort) and how she buys (peer-proofed, mood-led, expressive). At a platform level, the 2025 QuestMobile report quantifies the scale: 624 million active female users online (↑2.6% YoY) with stickier usage (173.6 hours), heavily engaged in short-video and social; Xiaohongshu is a prime arena for discovery, discussion, and decision.
What defines the She Economy traveller?
- She compares relentlessly: 98% compare prices for duty-free; trust is earned with transparency, not slogans.
- She wants help at the point of truth: 72% rate staff assistance as important when buying duty-free, so the human layer still converts.
- She shops the airport: 63% report shopping at the airport; beauty ranks highest among categories.
- She validates on social: 63% use social media in the path-to-purchase; RED and Douyin dominate discovery and peer-proofing.
- She still trades up: Half plan to spend RMB 25,000 or more per trip—value-led luxury, not cheapness, wins.
- She books late but researches early: 76% book under one month; 79% research before arriving in-market, so conversion starts long before security.
This isn’t a fad. It reflects a deeper consumer mood: small, self-affirming purchases that deliver comfort, efficacy, and visible value.
If you can’t prove it in 5 seconds, you won’t sell it.
For years, the airport tried to be the start of the story. For today’s Chinese female traveller, it’s the final proof point. If she can’t find credible, peer-validated evidence of value and authenticity before she flies, the airport becomes a museum, not a marketplace. Your job is to make that proof immediate, beautiful, and scannable, then add the human layer that turns intent into a receipt.
You package evidence as the thing you sell. Not just the SKU, but a tight bundle of:
- Price proof – time-stamped comparisons vs Mainland RRP / typical e-commerce.
- Authenticity & provenance proof – serial/QR/NFC, origin, after-sales terms, warranty, and repair routes.
- Performance proof – clinicals, ingredients, before/after, shade swatches, mini trials.
- Exclusivity/availability proof – airport-only sizes/colours/duos, real-time stock, limited-time drops.
- Social proof – creator Notes/KOC demos that she trusts, surfaced at shelf in Mandarin.
Present that proof beautifully, instantly, and make it scannable. The proof itself becomes the value proposition.
A 12-week playbook you can start tomorrow
Weeks 1–2: Proof-of-value stack
- Publish bilingual price transparency for top SKUs — Mainland RRP + 30-day flagship average (RMB), refreshed fortnightly and time-stamped; airport-only sets show per-ml/per-g value. Put the promise on the shelf, not in a brochure.
Weeks 3–4: Seed demand upstream
- Build a KOC-first matrix on RED/Douyin: pre-flight must-buy lists for your hub, linking to click-and-collect.
- Schedule pushes inside T-30 days to match late booking reality.
Weeks 5–6: Compress discovery in-terminal
- Install “Quiet Luxury” consultation pods in beauty and accessories. Staff Mandarin advisors to advise, not hover.
- Add wayfinding from security to pods with scan-to-slot booking for 10-minute consults.
Weeks 7–8: Stage micro-joy
- Weekly 15-minute reveals (soothing skincare, flight-recovery kits, travel fragrance duos). Pair sampling with instant gifts-with-purchase.
Weeks 9–10: Make exclusivity tangible
- Launch airport-only colours/sizes/duos with creator validation. Make “can’t buy at home” the headline. This beats generic discounts and travels well across hubs.
Weeks 11–12: Close the loop
- Retarget scanners and pre-order users with “Return-Flight Perks” and lounge-side pick-up. Social media already nudges airport shopping (61% overall; 64% among Gen-Z), so keep the loop tight.
Stakeholder-specific moves
Airport operators
- Design a “RED-to-gate” spine. Drop QR “price-truth” pedestals and creator-curated micro-galleries along the primary passenger flow. Each QR resolves to a Mandarin landing page with airport-only bundles, real-time stock, and side-by-side domestic/airport price deltas. (She’s checking anyway.)
- Put consultation where the dwell is. Build seated beauty-consult nooks near power outlets and quiet corners; staff with Mandarin beauty advisors trained to close with bundles and gifts-with-purchase. (Remember: assistance desired.)
- Category adjacency tweaks. Move beauty beside athleisure and small leather goods; keep mother-and-child and clean-beauty ranges visible and stroller-friendly. QuestMobile shows women over-index on beauty, fashion, and health content; mirror the same online behaviour offline.
- Set Mandarin service minimums in beauty, watches, jewellery, and small leather goods.
Duty-free & multi-brand retailers
- Drop-culture for women. Programme weekly “airport-only” drops: skincare trios in discovery sizes, lipstick + liner + refill sets, and creator-picked travel kits. Our survey data shows this cohort buys beauty first and responds to exclusivity and perceived savings.
- Price comparison made delightful. Replace static %-off stickers with time-stamped, scannable comps comparing local high-street, Mainland e-commerce average, and your shelf. (Lean into the 98% compare behaviour.)
- Alcohol, but designed for female palates. In our alcohol study, research and consideration are already happening on Douyin/RED/WeChat, and Singapore/Europe/Japan are top DF purchase spots. Use that to stage tastings for lighter styles, low/no-ABV, and elegant gifting SKUs that travel well.
- Treat advisors like creators. Shoot daily 30-second Douyin clips answering one product question; pin them in-store via QR.
Luxury brands
- Curate “quiet-luxury” journeys. Private consults, airport-only colours/sizes, and concierge-level aftercare. (This matches the high-assistance signal and value-led luxury.)
- Creator-validated exclusives. Co-create “RED-note to shelf” editions where the exact creator routine/fit is shoppable in-store with a QR trail back to her post.
- Offer concierge-level care (repairs, trade-in guidance, monogramming in 15 minutes) that travels across borders.
DMOs & F&B partners
- Programmes that match what she watches. Women over-index in short video and mobile social time; campaigns anchored to mini-series, micro-drama, and KOL notes on beauty/health/food punch through.
- Chef’s table × skincare labs. Blend two proven triggers — food and beauty — into in-terminal micro-events (e.g., “red-eye recovery” tastings with derm-advised hydration routines). It aligns with Gen-Z self-care and the category lead.
What to measure (and report)
- Scan-to-basket rate on top SKUs (target at least 25%).
- Assisted sales share in beauty/fragrance (target +10–15pp uplift).
- RED/Douyin saves for your airport Notes.
- Pre-order penetration inside T-30 days.
- Bundle penetration and repeat purchase on return flights.
What to stop doing
- Brand-first windows with no price proof.
- One-off mega-KOL blasts. RED is KOC-dense; you need a portfolio, not a poster.
- Confusing “global” claims. Show the receipt, not the slogan.
The bottom line
If travel retail wants durable growth, it must treat proof as the product and assistance as the differentiator. The She Economy isn’t a niche; it’s the norm. Design your airport journeys for her mobile research habit, her need for credible value, and her appetite for small, beautifully staged moments of joy. Do that consistently — across Singapore, Dubai, Seoul and Los Angeles — and you won’t just capture the rebound; you’ll own the reset.
All data referenced from:
- CTD Q2 travel sentiment survey report
- Questmobile She Economy report
- Endata Gen-Z lifestyle report
- RED – Her Power: Women Marketing Research Report
