Torino Airport: 32% Retail Conversion in 2026

When Torino Airport (TRN) got its big 2026 renovation, it was also a chance to completely rethink airport retail. We went all-in on a dedicated mobile app to merge the physical shopping experience with digital convenience, hoping to give the passenger experience a lift and, frankly, drive more retail revenue. The question was, would this digital push actually pay off with a measurable result?

Strategy: Bridging the Physical-Digital Divide at TRN

Our whole strategy for the Torino Airport retail app was about closing the gap between a passenger just walking through the terminal and actually spending money. Before the renovation, we saw tons of people with plenty of dwell time who would browse but not buy, mostly because they were worried about time or just didn’t know what deals were available. The goal was simple: get non-aeronautical revenue up by making it dead easy for people to discover and buy things. The new app, launched alongside the new terminals, was our tool to fix that.

Working with the airport’s marketing team, our plan really came down to three things. First was discovery, we had to show off everything the new Terminal 2 expansion offered, from duty-free and restaurants to the little local artisan shops. Then came personalization, where the idea was to send people relevant offers based on who they were and, more importantly, where they were standing. Finally, we needed convenience, which meant building features like pre-ordering food or using click-and-collect for retail so people could buy without slowing down.

The biggest headache was getting the app to talk to all the different point-of-sale (POS) systems from every retailer, which ranged from huge global brands with modern tech to small independent shops with older setups. This meant we had to build a bulletproof API infrastructure that could handle real-time inventory pings and keep all the offers in sync. A 2025 IAB Europe report on retail media had basically confirmed our gut feeling on this, stating that accurate, live product availability is what gives people the confidence to buy on mobile. That report made real-time inventory our non-negotiable, top-of-the-list development priority.

Creative Approach: Visual Appeal and Intuitive Design

We wanted the app to feel like a part of the new airport, so the creative direction mimicked the terminal’s clean, modern architecture. The UI was built for speed, with big, obvious buttons for browsing retail offers and booking services right on the home screen. We shot slick, high-quality photos of products and food, not to be artsy, but to make things look desirable and create a sense of urgency. The creative work broke down into a few key areas:

• Visual Storytelling: We made short video clips for the app’s discovery section that showed off the new restaurants and shops, giving people a quick taste of what was available.
• Clear Offer Presentation: Deals had to be impossible to miss. We used bold fonts and high-contrast colors to make things like “20% OFF” or “Bundle & Save” jump off the screen.
• Location-Based Prompts: Push notification copy was short and to the point. We designed them to be hyper-relevant, like “Grab a coffee at Caffè Torino, just 50 meters from Gate B12!” or “Last chance for 20% off at Duty Free before boarding.”

We also produced a full suite of ad creatives for our app store optimization (ASO) and paid acquisition campaigns on social and display. The ads didn’t just show the app, they showed the benefit, saving time, getting exclusive deals, and making the travel day less stressful. Instead of just using a vague tagline like “a smarter travel experience,” our most effective creative was a simple video of a traveler breezing past a line by scanning a QR code for a pre-ordered meal, which communicated the convenience benefit instantly.

Targeting: Precision for the Transient Traveler

Our targeting for the TRN app was a mix of standard digital ads and some pretty specific location-based tactics. We broke our audience down into a few main groups:

• Pre-Travel Planners: These are people at home searching for flights to Torino or looking up airport info. We hit them with search ads on travel-related keywords and display ads on booking websites.
• Airport Dwellers: This was our money segment, passengers who were physically inside TRN. We targeted them directly using geofencing and beacon tech installed throughout the terminal.
• Frequent Flyers: We got access to these users through airline loyalty program partnerships (with consent, of course) and by building lookalike audiences from people who already used other airport services.

Geofencing was the engine of the whole in-terminal strategy. The moment a user with the app crossed the airport’s perimeter, they were eligible for time-sensitive offers. For example, if you walked by the luxury goods corridor, you might get a ping about a new watch collection. Getting this right was tricky because nobody wants their phone blowing up with notifications. We learned quickly after an early test (where we pinged users for every single shop they passed) that we had to set strict frequency caps and pivot to aggregated “deals near you” notifications to stop people from deleting the app in annoyance.

Campaign Metrics and Performance

The campaign launched with the renovated airport and ran for six months, from April to September 2026. Here are the numbers:

What Worked Well

The real-time inventory integration drove the best ROI, hands down. Passengers could see if a specific vintage of wine was actually available in duty-free or if a limited-edition perfume was in stock before they walked all the way across the terminal. This removed the risk of a wasted trip and built a ton of user trust. It’s no surprise the average transaction value for app sales was almost double the airport average. People were confident they’d get what they wanted. Post-campaign surveys confirmed it, with users constantly mentioning “knowing before I go” as the reason they used the app to buy.

Hyper-localized push notifications were another huge success. You don’t get an 18.6% CTR by accident. That came from sending useful, actionable messages at the exact right moment, like “Flight TRN123 now boarding from Gate A7. Grab a last-minute souvenir at Torino Souvenirs, just 2 minutes away!” We saw redemption rates for these kinds of specific, helpful offers climb above 25%, proving that relevance beats volume every time.

Finally, making the checkout process dead simple was key. Integrating Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other popular European digital wallets got rid of a major point of friction. This was especially helpful for international travelers who didn’t want to deal with cash or get hit with currency exchange fees, but it just made the process faster and smoother for everyone involved.

What Didn’t Work as Expected

We learned the hard way that people don’t want to shop right before they get on the plane. Our initial attempts to push retail offers to people sitting at the boarding gate were a total bust. Engagement for notifications sent within 30 minutes of a flight’s scheduled departure time dropped by nearly 50%. At that point, travelers are just focused on finding their seat, not on grabbing a last-minute deal.

The “Explore Local Torino” section was also a flop. In theory, offering deals for city-center businesses to arriving passengers sounded great. In practice, when you’ve just landed, the last thing you’re thinking about is opening the airport app to find a restaurant discount. You just want to find your bag and get a ride. The feature was completely out of context for the user’s mindset, so we eventually buried it in the app’s UI.

Our first onboarding tutorial was also way too long. People just skipped it. We thought a detailed walkthrough would reduce support queries, but it just put up a barrier right at the start and meant almost nobody learned about the app’s more advanced features, like pre-booking lounge access or creating shopping lists. It was a good lesson in how little patience users have when they first open an app.

Optimization Steps Taken

1. Refined Push Notification Strategy: First, we stopped spamming people. We moved away from broad, timed notifications and went all-in on messages triggered by location and in-app behavior. We also started A/B testing notification copy and quickly learned that a direct call to action with a specific benefit (e.g., “Save 15% on your next coffee”) crushed a generic announcement.
2. Simplified Onboarding: We killed the long tutorial. We replaced it with a short, interactive walkthrough that only covered the absolute essentials: flight status, retail deals, and food pre-ordering. More advanced features were introduced contextually later, as a user actually started exploring. That one change led to a 20% jump in feature discovery in the first 24 hours.
3. Enhanced Retailer Data Integration: Getting the smaller, independent shops to provide clean data was a challenge. So, we built them simple data entry tools and offered direct tech support to get them set up. It was a manual grind, but it was worth it to ensure their products were just as visible as the big brands’, which improved the overall product catalog.
4. Focus on Departure Experience: We shifted resources to where the money was: departing passengers with 2-3 hours to kill. That’s the prime dwell time for high-value purchases like last-minute gifts, duty-free hauls, and sit-down meals, so we doubled down on optimizing offers for that window.
5. A/B Testing of App Layouts: Using tools like Optimizely, we were constantly testing different UI layouts for the retail sections. We tried product carousels versus grid views and tinkered with the placement of search filters. These small, iterative tests compounded over time and improved product discoverability by about 10% during the campaign.

The Torino Airport app campaign really showed that when you properly integrate a digital tool into a physical space, you can get fantastic commercial results. It all comes down to being obsessive about the passenger’s actual journey and giving them something valuable at exactly the right moment.

Conclusion

Bottom line: the TRN app campaign is proof that a mobile strategy built on real-time data and contextual relevance can seriously improve the airport retail experience and drive real revenue. A well-executed app isn’t just a gimmick. For any other airport or large venue looking at this model, success hinges on getting the data integration right from the start and mastering hyper-localized messaging. If you miss on those, you miss the opportunity.