Omnevo and in-flight digitalisation specialists airfree have entered into a partnership to expand the in-flight retail experience.
The first rollout of the new joint platform was launched on Singapore Airlines (SIA) in collaboration with KrisShop, SIA’s flagship retailer, in June 2021 and is being expanded across the airline’s Thales-enabled Airbus A350 fleet.
Omnevo’s in-flight expansion of its single-platform strategy through airfree’s onboard expertise now provides an inter-connected, uninterrupted customer experience across the whole passenger journey, enabling KrisShop to host what is believed to be the largest in-flight retail offering ever seen in the industry.
On-board SIA passengers gain in-flight ‘live’ access to KrisShop’s offerings, with a curated selection of over 4,000 products ranging from beauty and fragrances to electronics and liquor, as well as exclusive KrisShop and SIA merchandise. SIA passengers can shop from the comfort of their seat during their flight, supported by convenient delivery options, including to their homes almost anywhere in the world, as well as to upcoming SIA flights.
The extended, holistic reach of the Omnevo platform now enables customer engagement at any journey point, including pre-order, in-flight shopping, post-flight and loyalty shopping as part of a single, cohesive shopping and entertainment in-flight experience.
airfree’s semi-embedded technology enables airlines to update the content of their servers before every flight, thereby reducing satellite connection costs and optimising bandwidth usage (whereby live in-flight connectivity need only be utilised during the checkout phase), to ensure a fast, smooth and seamless experience for passengers. This on-board technology creates a ground-to-air service offering a rapid, connected shopping experience with an intuitive, responsive front-end design adapted for both IFE screens and personal devices. Additional features that airlines can incorporate include smart management of the product catalogue, with route-based personalisation, real–time stock, price and promotion updates, multi-language and currency management, online payment, with every purchase trackable by shoppers through their account.
The SIA rollout is the first stage in a partnership between Omnevo and airfree and will serve as a blueprint to enable the new joint-platform across any Wi-Fi-enabled aircraft in the future.
Michael Raasch, CEO of Omnevo, said: “As airlines seek to recover from the greatest revenue crisis in aviation history, the in-flight revenue opportunity has been revolutionised through a powerful, proven path to higher revenue. With this newly expanded platform for KrisShop, we have demonstrated how leading airlines can bridge the industry’s pivotal gap in the targeting of the in-flight customer by placing the digital shopping experience right in front of them, in the seatback. The decades-old conundrum of how to fully exploit the ‘captive’ in-flight audience and actually deliver the revenue-driving potential of IFE can now be resolved through a dedicated, cutting-edge online shopping experience.
“Consumer digital adoption was greatly accelerated in the crisis and airlines must respond with a stronger customer experience across all journey points, including, crucially, in the air. This extension of our single, connected, tailored platform opens up viable, cost-effective new routes to recovery not only for FSCs but also for LCCs. Digitalisation is the only way to grow ancillary revenue in this turbulent market and seize a lasting competitive advantage.”
