How Omnichannel Commerce is reinventing the Travel Retail Customer Experience

How can companies benefit from digitalization? How do you create digital business cases that open up new business opportunities for companies? How do you create smart digital customer experiences that provide a value to customers? In his video interview, AOE CEO Kian Gould offers insights into the development of the Omnichannel Commerce solution OM³ and the lessons learned.

Reading time: 4 minutes + 6 minutes video

The fact that Omnichannel Commerce is changing consumer behavior faster than ever is no longer news. Retailers have known this for a long time, and they need to respond to change and find new E-Commerce solutions. Some industries are struggling to transform their business models into digital offerings. For example, many shopping centers are struggling to survive because they compete with E-Commerce players such as Amazon and Alibaba and rarely have digital solutions that add value to their customers. 

Unique solutions are also in demand in the aviation industry – approximately 50% of airport revenues are generated through non-aviation sales, especially through duty-free retail. Frankfurt Airport has some 65 million passengers a year – making it Germany’s largest shopping mall of sorts. However, the travel retail industry is experiencing a change from impulse purchases in the duty-free shops at the airport to an increased demand for planned purchases, with travellers researching and shopping online. If passengers cannot find a suitable offer, they switch to other channels such as Amazon, Alibaba and others, which thus become online competitors of the travel retail industry. 

To follow this trend, airports and airlines are relying on the Omnichannel trend, which offers their passengers a seamless digital experience and tailor-made, target group-specific offers and thus real added value. London Heathrow, for example, has developed the high-quality Heathrow Boutique, a digital marketplace specializing in luxury goods, which clearly stands out from its competitors thanks to its product portfolio, pricing and customized promotions and reaches shopping baskets of around 400 pounds. Auckland Airport in New Zealand has established the High-Street Shopping business case: Passengers can shop duty-free in Auckland City, the goods are delivered in time to the airport. These are just a few examples of how innovative digital solutions can deliver outstanding results. 

But how do you find these digital business models? And how do you develop smart Omnichannel Commerce solutions that offer added value to customers? Kian Gould, CEO and founder of AOE, shares insights and learnings in a Q&A session with Akeneo about the development of the Omnichannel Commerce Solution OM³ Suite, which has received several awards and has already been implemented at several global airports and airlines. Kian answers the following questions:

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