From an airline merchandising planner’s standpoint, summer is well over. It’s the Christmas flying season that’s upon most of them. But this holiday season will be like no other as they gear up to capture a portion of the gift buying bustle. Airlines are busy planning for their next retail rush and GuestLogix is in the middle of it all. With the successful pilot of selling SkyMall® catalogue items in-flight, U.S. carriers are eagerly awaiting to launch the GuestLogix OnTouch™ service that will allow them to promote and transact items from the print-based catalogue which is distributed on most U.S. domestic flights. So how will this change the passenger experience?
The promise is that in the time it takes one to fly from Dallas to Boston one can complete all their holiday gift buying and have them delivered to their domestic destination of choice. There is no question that SkyMall is the ideal shopping platform for in-flight retailing. While famous for its cutting edge merchandise, the catalogue also features popular electronics, books, beauty products and household items perfect for holiday gifts. The enabling of SkyMall purchases in-flight is an obvious addition to onboard retailing, and the OnTouch launch has come just in time.
The American Research Group found that before the 2008 holiday season, 43% of Americans planned on making a significant amount of their purchases through catalogues and other direct marketing techniques. Consumers claimed that door-to-door delivery is the largest benefit for catalogue shopping, while a diverse selection of products is a close second. Either way, the launch of this new service meets both requirements.
Despite the initial financial uncertainty of the 2008 holiday season, the retail sector still saw a 2.2% sales growth to over US$470B. Granted, it was the smallest growth in 10 years, the growth is still a sign that shopping during the holidays will always remain. The success of the SkyMall pilot over the past several months has revealed that even in a ‘down’ economy, consumers will make purchases as long as they consider those purchases a good value and a convenient experience.
Extensive growth in online retailing, a new Amazon App for Blackberry, and other technology-based retail operations confirm that convenience is what consumers want. The innovative new onboard retailing service will surely see plenty of uptake and with GuestLogix customers planning for a pre-Christmas deployment, passengers are sure to relish in this brand new onboard experience.
 Print Article
|
