Airlines are now capable of collecting and analyzing more and more traveler data including mobile app and social media behavior, session history from in-flight connectivity, travel history, and previous purchases.
NB: This is an analysis by Jennifer Bourdeau, product marketing, merchandising and airline IT at Amadeus IT Group.
This information should be captured, stored and shared to create a single unified traveler profile that enables personalized merchandising.
Just as Amazon disrupted the publishing industry with a big data approach to retailing, and Netflix disrupted the video-on-demand market to provide personal video recommendations, an airline must use the data it collects to provide a more personalized experience to its customers.
As airlines begin to move deeper into the end-to-end travel experience space, personalization becomes even more important.
Using big data tools, travel companies such as Airbnb and Kayak are personalizing search results around user preferences, social connections, rental history and other web footprints such as reviews.
In the competition for additional service revenues, airlines must compete against data-centric travel companies.
Our findings indicate that 26% of travelers are more likely to respond to messages tailored to personal interests while 22% are more likely to respond to promotions that are specific to their location, further underlining the importance of personalization to boost profitability.
Airlines must incorporate personalization into each of the five critical elements of their merchandising strategy.
If airlines use the traveler data they collect to personalize the timing, technique, channel, service and price to individual travelers, then relevance, conversions, and revenue will all increase.
NB1: This is an analysis by Jennifer Bourdeau, Product Marketing, Merchandising, Airline IT, Amadeus IT Group. It appears here as part of Tnooz's sponsored content initiative.
NB2: Have a look at the Amadeus Thinking Like a Retailer report for more insights on personalization and merchandising techniques that will help airlines unlock an additional $130 billion in revenues by 2020.
NB3: Aircraft banknotes laptop image by Shutterstock.