The non-aeronautical sector accounted for a whopping 39.4% of global airports’ revenues in 2017 with the ACI strongly encouraging airports to continue developing and maximising non-aviation offerings (source: 2018 ACI Airport Economics Report).
This increasing profitability of retail concessions and car parking in comparison to aeronautical sales, along with the changing digital retail landscape, calls for airports to shift their focus. And it’s the reason that Rezcomm’s new omnichannel Shop platform is bursting with features to facilitate, influence and support non-aeronautical sales and increase operational profitability and efficiency.
Victoria Wallace, Director of Digital at Rezcomm says:
“The new platform is designed to make each booking as easy as 1-2-3, but while customers will experience a polished interface, the design is far from superficial. Our aim was to develop a solution that exceeds the requirements and optimises the potential of our airport and venue partners, future-proofing their business against competition and changes in market trends, and I’m confident that this is what we have achieved.”
Shop’s functionality has been devised through intensive consultation with clients and analysts, alongside Rezcomm’s own extensive industry experience and study of best practice across sectors. In fact, many aspects of the new Shop resulted from direct collaboration with clients. The focus group response has been positive:
“Rezcomm have clearly done their homework. The new platform is easy to use and it was great to be able to give feedback from a user’s experience.”
What are the new variable search features?
First and foremost, Shop focuses on customer convenience. Features including the industry standard self-populating SmartSearch widget and clear visualisation of products on offer simply make booking easier.
Search results are displayed in clear, visually appealing layout. The information needed to make the booking is immediately and clearly available to the customer but alongside this there is a significant amount of content and information that can positively influence conversion. As the booking journey progresses, customers can select to view feedback from Trust Pilot or another review partner, or find the answers to common questions that might otherwise hijack the booking. The airport can add incentives and emotion to the process, letting people know about the free shuttle or alerting them that there is only one of a desirable product left at a lower price to encourage the sale.
One of the most exciting new features comes again through visualisation. While search results for products have traditionally been displayed through a list or grid view, through which it is possible to optimise the display of many products across the website, now there’s a new option that creates exiting possibilities for car park bookings: Map view.
Neil Robson, Parking Services Director at Rezcomm comments:
“The really strong visualisation of products is an exciting game changer because it not only looks great in the customer interface, it improves back-end function and conversion rates for clients.”
In line with customer expectation (the interface is immediately familiar to anyone who has ever used an off-street parking app), the map really does optimise product display for parking. Map view shows the customer a 3D map of the airport (creation of your own bespoke map is included with Shop). It’s an incredibly user-friendly layout. Search results are organised using the two main factors that drive the customer, convenience and cost. If two products are available for one car park, both are shown in the search results, giving the chance to up-sell. And when it comes to searching and booking on mobile, map view is by far the easiest way to do it. Cue far fewer abandoned carts, and lots more happy customers.
Victoria Wallace explains:
“The map feature is particularly useful for passengers visiting the website for the first time. The images really help them to visualise the layout of the airport in relation to the terminals and to get a feel for the balance of convenience and price offered by each product. To this end some of our clients are setting the map as the default search result view for first-time visitors.”
If your airport would like an early access demonstration of Rezcomm’s new ground-breaking parking and ecommerce platform please get in touch.
As Chief Digital Officer at Rezcomm, Victoria specialises in Digital marketing, CRM, digital design, UI, UX, email marketing, airports, innovation, technology, travel, parking, and ecommerce.
