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NORDIC REGION. Leading airline concessionaire Inflight Service has launched a new retail brand for the pre-order market called Holiday Taxfree. The umbrella brand will be used to service the company’s regional airline clients, offering a “common store front” for its partners and for passengers.
The company said: “Being the tax-free partner of choice for more than ten leading airlines in the Nordics (including SAS, Novair, Primera Air and Jet Time), Holiday Taxfree will instantly take the position as the number one pre-order tax-free brand in the region, allowing a consistent and familiar shopping experience for all pre-order customers, independent of which airline they travel with.”
It added that airlines will be able to increase ancillary revenue from pre-order sales without having to make any investments in marketing themselves.
Inflight Service CEO Björn Ulfberg (pictured) said: “Consumer insight is the starting point for all our retail concepts. Our aim is to continually be at the forefront of identifying the specific needs and wants of the leisure traveller – this is one of our main competitive advantages. The Holiday Taxfree concept is based on the collective expertise we have gathered as a market leader in our niche. We are convinced that the Holiday Taxfree concept will create an even more relevant pre-order experience.”
Marketing Manager Niklas Julin added: “Building a pre-order brand is part of our commitment to further grow the travel retail market in general and airline retail in particular and by doing so make IFS a more attractive partner for our existing and potential customers. The brand will be built on a country by country basis through media with high reach in our key target audiences, and going forward increasingly coupled with direct consumer engagement.”
Pre-order spending patterns
Recent Inflight Service research shows that pre-order is a preferred way of tax free shopping because of its convenience. It noted that pre-order customers appreciate the ability to plan their purchase in advance and have their products delivered to the seat. As a result, there is a strong over-representation of high-spenders (those who spend more than SEK1,000 on tax-free shopping) among pre-order buyers. Pre-order is particularly strong among families with children and in 70% of these cases, a woman is responsible for making the order.
Sweden is the most established pre-order market in the Nordics, with 75% of people who purchase making a pre-order, followed by Norway at 60%.
In Norway and Finland, Cognac is the most purchased product category while whisky is the number one product category in Sweden and Denmark. For outbound trips, suncare is by volume the most purchased category in all Nordic countries. Norwegians are the highest spenders and tend to buy from a variety of categories, Inflight Service noted.
Inflight Service supplies full concession retailing to airlines, ferries and airport retailers, with annual sales exceeding SEK2 billion (US$280 million).
Björn Ulfberg and Business Development Director John Baumgartner are at TFWA Asia Pacific this week to discuss opportunites for the Inflight Service business model with potential partners.
