Fly buy

Ecommerce is now far more prominent in the travel industry with engaging platforms enabling passengers to browse the retail and F&B offer in advance of reaching the airport.

These customer-centric models are now particularly important, where Covid has acted as a catalyst for the growth in online shopping. The ability to compare prices, products and delivery times online creates a challenging competitive landscape for all physical retail, airports included.

Why is ecommerce important in travel?
There are numerous touchpoints in a passenger journey, from the initial booking site to the return journey through the airport and beyond. `Owning' as much of this journey as possible reduces the opportunity for leakage to other providers and maximises commercial potential for the airport and/or airline. A seamless and well-connected ecommerce platform provides the opportunity to pull all these components together, improving customer experience and driving loyalty.

What have we learned so far?
There are examples of excellent ecommerce strategies across a variety of airports and airlines globally. Heathrow Airport, in collaboration with AOE are among the early adopters. The Heathrow Boutique is successfully integrated into the Heathrow app and webpage, creating a one stop shop for checking flight information, reserving items for collection at the airport (or delivery to gate), and pre-ordering F&B. The platform also enables passengers to build, and use loyalty points, developing the customer relationship.

Singapore Airlines provides an alternative view of the ecommerce journey, capitalising on its strengths as an airline. Their KrisShop platform enables passengers to purchase goods in advance, either choosing delivery to their seat or to their home (including overseas). Fulfilment is quick, with passengers able to order up to 60 minutes before their flight. The airline appears to be committed to their digital strategy, with a trial currently underway for Covid results to be scanned in by QR code for quicker check in. The app also includes a sophisticated translation tool and an augmented reality bag scanner to determine if its appropriately sized for overhead storage. Their anticipatory approach to customer needs is likely to drive loyalty and spend.

These examples are significant steps in digitalising the passenger journey to build convenience, conversion, and satisfaction. To extend this further, airports and airlines should look to work together, combining opportunities for fulfilment in the airport and on the plane, creating one unified customer journey.

What is best practice?
We believe the four drivers of success for any platform are: 

- Seamless interface
- Anticipatory service
- Quick and convenient fulfilment
- Channel agnostic experience

Operators who have the greatest potential for success are those with strong relationships with all stakeholders in the passenger journey, from the airport to the airline and all touchpoints in between. Travel retail is best placed to effectively challenge pureplay online players when all these groups come together.

Tish Hewitt