AIX 2018: Panasonic and gategroup take NEXT step

By April 10, 2018 March 23rd, 2020 Ancillary revenues, Featured

Panasonic Avionics has unveiled a new retail platform in response to growing demand from airlines to increase ancillary revenues.

To enable a new generation of revenue-generating in-flight services, Panasonic’s ‘NEXT Marketplace’ is its new retail offering for customers of its NEXT and eX3 systems. In a briefing at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, the company said NEXT Marketplace would provide a complete end-to-end digital retail solution incorporating an easy and flexible set of shopping channels for passengers, through both seatback screens and mobile devices.

It also provides airlines with tools for the creation of dynamic retail offerings and inventory management that can be tailored to a variety of retail models and promotional scenarios, said Panasonic’s chief technology officer, David Bartlett.

Panasonic’s strategy with NEXT Marketplace is to partner with industry leaders such as gategroup, which serves more than 700 million passengers annually with its retail and catering operations. gategroup’s involvement will include technology partner Black Swan, which will provide its extensive data analytics capabilities, enabling airlines to develop increasingly targeted and effective in-flight offerings.

Bartlett commented: “There is a vast, untapped opportunity for in-flight retail and revenue generation that will be enabled by our NEXT Marketplace solution. Backed by our new NEXT Cloud architecture, and in association with our strategic launch partner gategroup, NEXT Marketplace will set a new standard for dynamic, easy-to-use, and easy-to-manage, in-flight shopping and sales.”

 

Loyalty platform debut
Panasonic also announced at AIX the debut of its new airline on-board loyalty platform, ‘NEXT Loyalty’, with Singapore Airlines as the launch customer.

NEXT Loyalty is Panasonic’s new suite of solutions for enabling personalised in-flight experiences for passengers, and allowing airlines to extend their loyalty programmes into their on-board services. It allows passengers to login using a variety of credentials chosen by the airline, or to pair their mobile device at the seat via the airline app.

Once signed in, passengers will be recognised and provided with a variety of familiar personalised features including the following facilities: resuming unfinished movies from previous flights; receiving recommendations based on viewing history; unlocking exclusive content and offers based on loyalty programme status; saving settings for language/subtitle preferences, preferred genres and accessibility; customised-view options, and more.

Airlines will further benefit from the opportunity to understand usage patterns and activities in-flight, and utilise those data analytics to better tailor future in-flight services.

Bartlett said: “The great step change for inflight services is a truly personalised experience, just as passengers have become accustomed to on any digital service. But even further, we enable airlines to make this possible through their loyalty programmes, thus providing a win for both passenger experience and airline digital strategies.”

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