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Excess Baggage Group’s state-of-the-art bag wrap machine |
UK. Excess Baggage Group, the airport services provider with almost 40 outlets across London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and the UK rail network, has introduced a range of new services.
The company, which has been an airport luggage retailer for more than 20 years offering both premium and mid-market brands, has unveiled a new shop design suitable for both airside and landside.
In addition, the firm said its online luggage shop LuggageExpress.co.uk, described as the UK’s number one Google pay-per-click (PPC) site, can be white-labelled for airports allowing them to provide travellers with a full travel experience.
There is also an opportunity to cross-sell other airport services through pre-travel passenger contact, it added.
In other news, the company, which provides a travel accessories retail service at all its outlets, has introduced a new pop-up/kiosk retail concept combining accessories retail with its bag wrap and shipping services, designed to generate high-volume sales.
It also offers state-of-the-art, stand-alone, high quality mobile pop-up retail for smaller (temporary/permanent) locations including airside spaces.
Among the company’s other innovations are vending machines that offer travel goods to passengers as they wait at the gate. A range of travel goods is available, including fold-up luggage and accessories, international sim cards, budget mobiles, DVDs, etc. This service is also applicable to certain main concourse areas.
One of the company’s fastest-growing services is a new bag wrap machine concept providing three services from one location. Dubbed high-visibility state-of-the-art machines, they offer signage and branded wrap material which can advertise the airport, airlines etc.
Excess Baggage Group claims to be the only provider of branded bag wrap (BagWrap.com).
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The Excess Baggage Company branded luggage retail store at London Heathrow Terminal 5 |
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Excess Baggage Group’s new Cube Luggage retail concept offers premium luggage and travel bags |
Airport Concierge
Excess Baggage Group recently started operating hotel reservations and associated services such as bus and train tickets, car hire, lounge access, tours, London bus tours, sports and event tickets, theatre tickets, as well as mobile phone and wifi device rental and inbound and outbound sim card sales.
“We hope to add other services including in-terminal office services, flights and Interflora flower delivery, as well as dry cleaning in the near future,” said Excess Baggage Group CEO David Elliott.
“The philosophy is to provide a one-stop-shop for all of the above services, drawing on a wide range of suppliers, with live travel and hotel booking, and access to a variety of supplier systems.”
He continued: “We hope that airports and rail stations will see the benefits of consolidating what is often a significant list of suppliers into one location, with attendant gains from reduced operational and management costs. Terminals will also benefit from the release of what is often a significant amount of potential retail space, thereby assisting the terminal’s space management policies, and at the same time increasing revenues per square foot across the retail footprint.”
Airport Concierge is also backed up by a website offering many of the company’s travel-related services online (airportconcierge.com, coming soon).
Excess Baggage Group offers a wide range of other services to airports, including:
Duty Free Shop & Collect systems and home delivery
With this service, passengers collect duty free purchases they made outbound from the company’s left baggage units when they return. Systems also deliver to their residence, or elsewhere, depending on Customs regulations.
“Home delivery drives bulk purchase,” Elliott said.
In addition, there is an opportunity to provide duty free fulfilment for airline carriers via advanced air-to-ground data transmission systems, allowing carriers to reduce weight carried and fuel burn.
Using the service, airports benefit from increased volume sales and purchasing power, according to the company. In-terminal systems and hardware are designed to drive duty free sales for queuing passengers, with gate delivery and/or airside pick-up.
Left baggage
The firm provides a left baggage service across 35 outlets, many of which are high volume. It requires a heavy duty computer system which has a very good level of security, the company said.
Offering full management reporting, it is backed up to central servers and can work remotely in the event of telecoms issues. Full online CCTV coverage of outlets is offered.
The company is developing online pre-booking, which aims to increase marketing and cross-selling opportunities.
Vouchers can be issued from the system for other services, which is said to be ideal for promotions and cross-selling/marketing, both at deposit of baggage and collection.
Visit LeftBaggage.com
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A new pop-up/kiosk retail concept combines accessories retail with bag wrap and shipping services |
Airside luggage storage
Originally developed for Westfield shopping centres, the Cloakroom service provides airside luggage and shopping storage (see Cloakroom.co).
Baggage shipping
Excess Baggage Group specialises in on-airport luggage shipping, which is also available online (ExcessBaggage.com), providing passengers with a door-to-door baggage service both outbound and inbound.
Commenting on the benefits of the service, Elliott said: “Passengers travel light, so they have less stress. There is an opportunity to maximise revenues with return shipments, when the passenger comes home.”
Courier shipping
The company provides a range of courier options (Fedex, UPS, DHL etc) from its website RapidParcel.com, described as suitable as a back-up to its baggage shipping service, and also useful for Duty Free Shop & Collect and Duty Free Shop & Ship and Home Delivery. Local and international parcel options are available.
Coin-operated weighing machines
An ancillary service to bag wrap and baggage shipping, the firm’s coin-operated weighing machines allow passengers to weigh their bags and re-pack if necessary (BagWeigh.com).
Online lost property
The company provides a fully auditable online lost property system affording access to all airport and airline lost property receivers, as well as other interested parties including airport security and police. The system offers advanced reporting with multiple access levels and remote upload via smartphones.
Through customisable reports, the system highlights trends and problems and aids repatriation of items of lost property, for example via image reports. Image reporting for items such as jewellery and clothing increases item return rates by up to 50%, the company claims.
The online service is said to reduce lost property enquiries to the airport by up to 70% and the whole system has doubled the return rates at other major transport terminals. It also provides auction sorting, lotting, and auction delivery system for unclaimed items (see LostProperty.org).
A new service, confiscated item passenger return, assists in the repatriation of confiscated items via post and courier (see Post-and-Fly.com website launching soon).
“All websites can be white-labelled to the airport if desired, and we are happy to work in tandem with the airport to customise and/or develop our services to deal with specific needs and requirements,” said Elliott. “We also offer, in association with our partners, other passenger baggage services such as SkyPorter and trolley management.”
About Excess Baggage Group
Excess Baggage Group is a specialist airport services operator with almost 40 outlets across London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and the UK rail network, as well as at Westfield shopping centres in London. Services include luggage and travel accessories retailing, left baggage, luggage storage, lost property, shipping and concierge services.
For details, contact David Elliott, CEO, Excess Baggage Group Ltd, 4 Hannah Close, London NW10 0UX, UK, tel: +44 20 8324 2002 or e-mail David.Elliott@excess-baggage.com Visit www.Excess-Baggage.com
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