RETAIL FIDS at LaGuardia Terminal B include walking times to increase dwell time It’s tough to find many airports that will say on a pure-ROI basis, omnichannel has been worth the journey Jeremy Corfield, CPI Australia points of difference in real time to a broad audience and, importantly, customized to different segments of that audience. To be clear, we aren’t Luddites; plenty of our time is spent exploring tech-based innovation. But we always counsel to match the investment to the genuine and plausible scale of the opportunity.” This pragmatic approach makes more sense than some of the wildly overoptimistic views of the past about how digital could radically transform airport commerce. But mindsets are changing. Smarter data leverage Data acquisition is a relatively easy win. Martijn Steur, founder and managing director of Kinetic Consultancy and an expert in the airport non-aviation sector, comments, “The true low-hanging fruit lies in the digital insights that technology can provide. It is relatively easy and affordable for airports to gain critical insights into metrics such as the number of visitors to an area, shop or even a specific concept within a food court. There are ways that airports and retailers can achieve better commercial results – adding more retail and F&B space, for example. They can also encourage better engagement by turning to digital, although this has not been a great success so far, with some burned fingers along the way. ACI World, which represents more than 2,000 airports, published a review in November 2024 that did not pull any punches: “The inconvenient truth is that for most airports, a relatively small percentage of their passengers currently engage with their digital products and services.” The study added that without investment in commercial digital solutions, airport stores might lose their relevance, particularly with digital natives like Gen Z. Words like ‘omnichannel’, conveying a seamless retail experience from offline to online, have also become somewhat redundant as shoppers now expect this as a matter of course. “It’s tough to find many airports that will say that on a pure-ROI basis, omnichannel has been worth the journey,” says Jeremy Corfield, a partner at Concession Planning International Australia. “Some platform vendors promised ridiculous results, and sometimes airports had inflated expectations of the value that omnichannel can add. An airport will never have the scale to compete with global or even national online retailers on price, so, just like the in-store offer, there needs to be a genuine point of difference that creates some level of value for the customer.” According to Corfield, that difference ultimately means stocking old-school favorites like airport exclusives and destination-themed products focusing on localization and provenance. “Where the digital element comes into its own is creating a platform to better highlight and communicate Applying practical solutions Lagardère Travel Retail recently put its digital retail insights to use when launching a digital shopping service – Shop&Fly – with Aeroporti di Roma (ADR). The service gives passengers at Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport the opportunity to reserve products available on ADR’s website and pay for and pick them up directly at the airport. With Shop&Fly, passengers can use their personal digital devices to choose from a range of items – including a large selection of perfumes, make-up and skincare products, food and wine, and toys – on the airport’s website. Overall, there is a catalog of 9,000 products from over 600 brands that passengers can order online and pick up at the airport. To encourage passenger uptake of this seamless digital experience, a 10% discount has been reserved for online orders. The e-shopping platform also includes Personal Shopper (to reserve luxury products online and pay for them at the boutique), Book a Table (to reserve a table in the airport’s restaurants) and Take Away and Fly (to purchase a meal online and collect it at the airport). All ITA Airways passengers, even those coming from non-Schengen destinations, will also be able to collect products ordered on Shop&Fly at the pickup points of Aelia Duty Free stores, which are owned by Lagardère Travel Retail. “In 2024, Shop&Fly recorded more than one million visitors, with an average of more than 2,600 per day,” reveals Marilena Blasi, chief commercial officer at Aeroporti di Roma. “Passenger feedback has been 36 Passenger Terminal World APRIL 2025 www.PassengerTerminalToday.com
Passenger Terminal World Passenger Terminal World April 2025 Issue: Page 36
