UPDATED 18-02-2019 14:45 (UTC +2)

Travel retail is a booming global industry. For many travelers passing through airports around the world, shopping is a key element of their travel experience. The provision of travel retail goods is also an important generator of revenue for airports. As such, airport environments offer tremendous commercial opportunities to global brands, which are now doubling-down on their efforts in this sector. But the future of travel retail that these brands face is not what it used to be.

At Air Convention 2018, Rūta Burbaitė from AeroTime spoke to Melvin Broekaart, Managing Director of Aircommerce, about re-discovering the airport’s strengths and commercial advantages, and the innovative, cutting-edge solutions needed to engage today’s airport audiences.

Changing customer behavior and digital evolution are impacting commercial revenue streams for airports, airlines and travel retail partners, as Aircommerce experts observe. With the rise of online shopping, un-locking the airport’s true commercial potential becomes a challenge.

Tapping into the needs and desires of today’s generation of travelers, which expect real-life shopping experiences to be digitally enhanced, fun and entertaining, therefore is key.

According to Mr. Broekaart, the future of travel retail lies in the physical contact between consumers and brands accommodated in the airport environment. It is at the airport that customers finally have the time and the opportunity to physically experience brands and products.

And the result? Touching, tasting and trying these goods leaves travelers with deep and long lasting impressions that later translate into purchases, brand-awareness and revenue for airports.

But Mr. Broekaart’s vision extends beyond airports to airlines and in-flight entertainment. “Wouldn’t it be amazingly great if you could actually touch, feel, try, and taste products in the air while sitting in your chair,” he tells us in the interview with AeroTime. 

One of the new innovative solutions purposely built to engage passengers at airports around the world is Aircommmerce’s recent airport activation in the immersive Snapfly airport photo booth that allows retailers and brands to create personalized backgrounds of their products or location using the latest chroma-key green-screen technology.

Snapfly was designed to be a fun, free-of-charge social photo experience

Before passengers board their flights through the gates at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, they have the opportunity to share their airport experience and travel excitements with friends and family using the airport specific Snapfly life-sized photo booth, developed by Aircommerce. The photo booth invites passengers to stand inside, against multiple fun and funky backgrounds that they can select. The photos, which can be personalized with location, retailer or brand identity, are sent instantly to the passenger by email and can be shared via social media.

“For the passengers it is just a great experience, it is just a digital photograph, it is a different kind of photograph and you are able to make a selfie, funny things you can add to the pictures. There is a brand behind you in the pictures so every time you share these pictures on social media the brand is there as well, in a fun and a light way. Most of the passengers do not mind, but for the brand it is really valuable,” Mr. Broekaart shared in a previous interview with AeroTime.  

Aircommerce is an Amsterdam-based company specializing in airport specific commercial propositions. Experts at Aircommerce develop branded concepts, ranging from in-store presence, to airport activations and pop ups to mono-brand stores and more, and deploy these at airports around the globe.

To find out more, visit https://aircommerce.com/