Frankfurt Airport turns duty-free shopping into omnichannel experience

Shopping is a major activity at airports; image courtesy of Frankfurt Airport

Germany’s Frankfurt Airport is enabling travelers to shop in a multichannel fashion with the launch of a new seamless ecommerce experience.

Powered by Magento Commerce, the platform will translate typical omnichannel shopping services, such as click and collect and home delivery to the airport retail environment. With retailers throughout its terminals carrying brands including Veuve Clicquot, Caviar House & Prunier and Gucci, this will simplify travel purchases.

In-flight entertainment
About 61 million travelers passed through Frankfurt Airport in 2015, making it one of the most trafficked airports in Europe. The airport’s 300 stores also qualify it as the largest mall in Germany.

“With the reality of the digitally empowered consumer, commerce today is about going were the customer is,” said Steve Yankovich, chief product officer at Magento Commerce. “This requires an omnichannel approach that spans more than just owned channels like stores, kiosks, online and mobile.

“Retailers will have to extend their inventory to retail partners and channels they don’t directly own,” he said. “The millions of high value consumers passing through busy airports every day represent a massive commerce opportunity and this project with Fraport and AOE showcases the power of what’s possible on the Magento Platform.”

Lufthansa in-flight shopping at Frankfurt Airport

Consumers will now have the opportunity to make purchases while in-flight and pick up their purchase when they land, extending the timeframe for duty-free shopping. Available in the online store are items that start at entry-level price points, such as Burberry fragrances, and go to the high end, such as Remy Martin’s Louis XIII cognac priced at more than $3,000.

“Bringing this level of convenience to our customers is a reflection of our commitment to not only stay ahead of the technology curve, but to deliver great travel experiences to all who pass through our airport,” said Kai Schmidhuber, senior vice president of Multichannel at Fraport Airport Group, in a keynote address at Magento’s Imagine conference. “With Magento’s digital commerce and order management technology, we’re able to pioneer a new way of delivering value to our customers and retailers alike.”

A combination of increased demand for high-end brands and low-cost tourism is expected to drive the global duty-free retail market until 2019, according to a recent report by Technavio.

Due to high consumer demand and affordable travel rates, the duty-free retail sector is expected to reach approximately $98 billion in revenue by 2019. As such, Technavio’s “Global Duty-Free Retailing Market 2015-2019” examines market growth by revenue and tracks emerging trends for the sector to illustrate why having a duty-free strategy can be profitable for global luxury brands (see story).

from Travel and hospitality – Luxury Daily http://www.luxurydaily.com/frankfurt-airport-turns-duty-free-shopping-into-omnichannel-experience/
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