The Exit via the Gift Shop Strategy: Why Airlines Must Rethink Ancillary Retail

Almost every visitor to a museum, gallery, or theme park knows the experience: you exit through the gift shop. It’s not just about souvenirs - it’s about extending the journey, creating one last moment of discovery, and capturing value that adds to the overall experience.

What if airlines thought the same way? What if every flight didn’t just end at the destination, but with a seamless opportunity for passengers to engage with retail - personalised, convenient, and rewarding? That is the essence of our Exit via the Gift Shop strategy, powered by Omnevo’s Pre-Order Pre-Select product.

The challenge airlines face today

Onboard retail has too often been treated as a bolt-on. Duty free sales here, a meal pre-order option there - disconnected, difficult for crew to manage, and out of step with passenger expectations shaped by e-commerce leaders.

The result?

• Low engagement.
• Inconsistent passenger experience
• Missed revenue opportunities

A new way forward: Exit via the gift shop

The Exit via the Gift Shop strategy, enabled by Pre-Order, Pre-Select, treats ancillary retail as a connected ecosystem across the journey.

It means:

• Retail everywhere: seatback, mobile, and crew-led sales, all part of one flow
• Personalised experiences: linked to loyalty, preferences, and profiles
• End-to-end fulfilment: ensuring the right product is in the right place at the right time

And crucially, it means integrating retail into moments passengers are already engaged in.

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Breaking new ground with our customers

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By the end of this year, we’ll be launching with our first airline partner to offer passengers the ability to pre-select their complimentary meal or beverage and browse and buy from the inflight retail store in one seamless flow.

For the industry, this marks the first time retail has been integrated directly into the complimentary F&B journey - transforming a simple pre-order into a natural upsell moment. The result? Convenience for passengers, efficiency for crew, and a powerful new revenue stream for airlines.

Looking ahead

Ancillary retail is no longer an afterthought. It’s fast becoming the future of how airlines engage passengers, build loyalty, and unlock new commercial opportunities.

And this is just the beginning. Imagine AI-driven shopping journeys that anticipate a passenger’s preferences before they’ve even clicked. A traveller who pre-selects a vegetarian meal might be nudged with offers for plant-based snacks or wellness products. A frequent long-haul flyer could see tailored duty free highlights based on past purchases, loyalty status, or even their destination. The more personalised the experience, the more it feels like service - not sales.

There’s also a powerful ripple effect: when a passenger logs in to choose their complimentary meal, they’re already one step inside the airline’s retail ecosystem. That simple click-through drives organic traffic to the duty free store, turning a routine task into an invitation to explore. And once they’re browsing, the chances of conversion skyrocket.

At Omnevo, we see this as the blueprint for the next evolution of inflight commerce: a retail experience that feels natural, personal, and connected across the journey. This is just the start of how the “Exit via the Gift Shop” strategy - anchored by pre-select, pre-order - will reshape the way airlines think about retail.