Is Your Cruise Retail Strategy Missing Its Most Important Piece?

The cruise industry is booming, with over 42 million passengers expected by 2028.

For brands, this represents a unique and powerful opportunity to connect with a captive, highly engaged audience who see on-board retail as a key part of their holiday.

The potential for vast sales uplifts from impulse purchasing is immense. But how do the top brands truly succeed in this channel?

The answer isn't what you might think. While product and placement are crucial, the most

successful brands understand that their biggest asset on a cruise ship isn't their product—it's the people selling it.

After understanding the specificities of the cruise retail channel, the next most important step is to think about the crew. You cannot be successful in cruise retail without building a strategy to optimize the performance of the onboard teams - it is simply impossible without this. On cruise ships, "people buy people" (there is a whole blog just on this topic), and therefore this is where your strategy has to start.

Why is this so critical for brands? It is all about sales performance.

The numbers tell a truly powerful story. According to recent research by M1ndset for the DFNI cruise conference, the data reveals a profound truth about our channel's sales dynamics:

• The average guest visits shops 3.3 times during their voyage.

• Of these guests, 61% interact with shop staff.

• An astonishing 80% of these interactions influence a purchase.

The final takeaway is undeniable: Over 50% of all in-store transactions in cruise retail are signfificantly influenced by the sales crew.

This is a game-changing statistic. It means that even with the perfect product and placement, you are leaving half your potential revenue on the table if the team isn't empowered to sell for you with confidence.

The top performing brands in cruise retail are not necessarily those with the best market share in the global retail industry, it is those brands who have ensured that after they get the correct product onto the ships with the correct setup, the onboard teams have confidence to sell their product consistently.

So, let's talk about the biggest challenge you face in this channel: Training.

As a brand, how do you effectively train an industry of 300+ ships and over 9,000 retail staff across more than 200 homeports globally?

If you've ever tried, you know the logistical nightmare. The sheer scale and constant crew rotations make in-person training expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient. If your small team can only visit 3 ships out of a fleet of 15, you are missing thousands of staff and leaving significant sales revenue on the table. This is a problem every brand has faced, and it's one we understand intimately.

At Cruise Retail Academy, we are tackling this problem head-on.

Our CRA+ program has been specifically built from our deep understanding of what truly works in this channel. It is a 360-degree strategy designed to give brands the tools to overcome the logistical challenges of training and empower their onboard teams.

Our program is designed to deliver five key outcomes for your brand:

• Extend Your Reach: Train every crew member, not just a select few, to ensure your brand message is consistent across the entire industry.

• Boost Sales Confidence: Equip your teams with the knowledge and confidence to become powerful brand ambassadors, directly leading to increased sales performance.

• Drastically Reduce Costs: Slash the expensive travel costs and resource drain associated with traditional training methods.

• Improve Channel Consistency: Guarantee that your brand story and product knowledge are delivered uniformly, regardless of the ship or crew rotation.

• Unlock Economies of Scale: A single, scalable solution to a global, ever-moving challenge.

We understand that the top-performing brands in this channel aren't just selling products; they're investing in people. Our CRA+ program is your blueprint for transforming your onboard teams into your most valuable asset.

We will be presenting this comprehensive strategy at TFWA Cannes this year. We invite you to schedule a meeting with us to discuss your specific challenges and learn how CRA+ can help your brand unlock its full potential in this dynamic and growing market.

Let's connect.

Adrian, Cruise Retail Academy

Email: adrian@cruiseretailacademy.com