EUROPE. Digital business, e-commerce and marketplace solutions provider AOE has launched an edition of its Omnichannel Multi-Merchant Marketplace (OM³) platform for the airline market.
The OM³ solution is already in place at major airports including Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Auckland; now the OM3 Airline Edition can help “transform digital business models in travel retail for major carriers,” according to AOE.
The announcement comes in the wake of the first go-live of the new solution, which was recently announced with KrisShop, Singapore Airlines’ travel retail brand (as reported by The Moodie Davitt Report from Singapore; see also video below).
“We are very pleased to raise our travel retail expertise to the next level and provide a custom solution for the world’s major airlines,” said AOE CEO and Founder Kian Gould. “We have been able to take the experience gained during years of building solutions for airports and adapt OM3 to meet the specific needs of airlines. We hope to be able provide our clients with a solution that will reinvent inflight travel retail as we know it and give them the tools to create new sustainable business models for long-term growth.”
AOE initially focused on airports during the development of OM3. Gould said the company considered the airline space to be “a dying breed” at first, with inflight offerings becoming less attractive for carriers. The spark to create the OM3 Airline Edition came from the partnership with Singapore Airlines, said Gould. “KrisShop had a very specific vision in recreating its inflight offering.” The key to the service is to take it away from onboard and expand it to include more delivery options, noted AOE, with a vast SKU base and an extensive list of top-flight retailers.
According to Gould, what drove AOE into investing significantly into its own Airline Division was the realisation that airlines have one major advantage over airports – large amounts of customer data that airports would need years to collect.
“Airlines have vast amounts of information about their customers, based on long-term relationships. This data is extremely powerful, because it is essential for entering into targeted, personalised communications with each passenger,” he said. “Only by addressing each passenger in such a manner, can full-service carriers build commerce business models that will be successful in the long run.”
Gould added that the OM3 Airline Edition is similar to the solution currently in use at airports, as it also includes multiple retailers, drop shippers and distributors. Each of these stakeholders has different data sources, held in different systems. According to Gould, many airlines have shied away from offering their own service due to this complexity, often outsourcing the service to an experienced company.
The OM3 Airline Edition has been live since July this year, forming the foundation for Singapore Airlines’ KrisShop. As reported, the new KrisShop.com offers an upscale design, improved customer experience and numerous new features. These include the mixed-cart transactions for inflight and home delivery, Ctrip integration and soon customers can preorder up to 60 minutes before flight departure. KrisShop also places a special emphasis on presentation of best-selling brands in its store. Premium brands such as Apple, Bang & Olufsen and Chloé benefit from the shop-in-shop concept.
“We believe that KrisShop’s implementation of our solution is a clear signal to the industry that travel retail players need to build personalised omnichannel commerce models in order for their retail business to be viable long-term,” Gould commented.
As part of the continued development of AOE’s OM3 Solution Suite, the company announced a new leader for the OM3 Airline Division. As reported, Michael Raasch will join AOE as its Head of Airline Solutions on 1 October. His role will include the strategic expansion of OM3 with a special focus on helping the OM3 Airline Edition gain a strong foothold in the travel retail industry, particularly with major carriers.
