Is the trolley dead?

Founder and ceo of SKYdeals, an inflight retail platform, talks live offers and interactive shopping and predicts an end to retail trolley service as we know it

At any moment, 700,000 passengers are flying above our heads, and with inflight connectivity we are now able to interact in real time with this population offering brands, services and targetted offers onboard. Shopping becomes part of inflight entertainment.

Passenger personalisation

But passengers won't buy products or services just because they have the time to browse online catalogues. To be successful, the deals being offered must be attractive, exclusive and personalised to the passenger's profile as well as being available at a very competitive price. The challenge is how to achieve the best personalisation of the offers using the data airlines have.

Our solution is Inflight Shoppertainment.Any time passengers connect they find new, fun and exciting offers including: deals on products and services related to the zone, region or country the plane is flying over, a ‘Group Buying' scheme, where the more passengers that buy the deal on the same flight, the better the offer and ‘Flash Sales' available for short 15 minute time periods. The technology allows airlines to offer special offers over the duration of the flight in an engaging interactive way that a trolley service never could achieve.

Airlines can now present

special offers in an engaging interactive way that a trolley service could never achieve

Win, win

Shoppertainment is a source of new revenue for airlines and accelerates the return on investment. And at the same time it's a great platform for brands and services to reach millions of passengers while onboard. It's fun for passengers and offers them great deals and exclusive products so it is a win, win.

It is futile to waste time on broad catalogues or large offers - airlines will never compete with Amazon or pure players, but instead they can invest on animations, commercial offers, exclusivity and merchandising. Inflight e-commerce must be thought of as inflight entertainment, it has to be interesting, dedicated and frequently renewed. You should have a different selection at every flight, every month and even every day.

SKYdeals is already deploying in Europe, the US and in the Asian airlines as well as working on cruise, rail and autonomous car solutions. Shoppertainment has a bright future.