DENMARK. Danish company Intelligent Track Systems (ITS), in collaboration with Blueprint, will roll out ‘smart’ shopping trolleys at Hamburg Airport and Vienna Airport this year.
As reported, the smart carts were introduced at Oslo Gardermoen Airport last August after their successful trial at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in the summer, and San Diego International Airport before that.
The free-to-use ‘intelligent’ trolleys were proven to give passengers a convenient and easier shopping experience and wayfinding at the airport.
ITS CEO Morten Pankoke said: “Our free trolleys are able to lift retail sales thanks to their ability to guide passengers around airside shopping areas and direct them to special offers or items of interest.”
“We are delighted with the significant uptakes in basket size, 90% of users felt the trolleys made their shopping experience easier, 94% said they would use them next time they came to the airport and 32% shopped products advertised on the tablets. We are even more heartened to see so many new airports are taking an interest following successful proof of concept at the third-busiest airport in France to the busiest gateway in Scandinavia.”
Blueprint Partner Karl Walter said: “We have established solid proof of concept with the first three airports and demonstrated clear value creations benefitting all airport stakeholders, a win for all. Now we extend a warm welcome to new partnerships with Hamburg Airport and Vienna Airport. We are grateful for these collaborations, a true testimony to airports being open-minded, forward-thinking and committed to delivering extraordinary shopping experiences.”
The trolley’s interactive screen features other information for passengers, including airport access routes, departure times, directions to gates, product promotions, tax free shopping guidance and relevant airport information available in several languages.
According to ITS, younger shoppers, particularly digitally minded travellers, are more likely to activate the ‘show route to a concession’ function to a higher degree. Trolleys are an “effective commercial tool” in terms of connecting to Next Gen, Gen Z and Millennials travellers, often considered hard-to-reach target groups by airports, the company said. Citing an industry study, it said these three groups will represent 60% of all travellers by 2028.
Hamburg Airport Head of Centre Management Lutz Deubel said: “It is our aspiration at Hamburg Airport to continually enhance our airport operations with technological innovations. So it is a particular source of delight to us to be the first German airport to present our passengers with the ‘intelligent’ cabin baggage trolleys from the company ITS.
“The interactive display will enable our passengers to browse in the shops and retrieve flight information, creating a completely new shopping and service experience for airports around the world. We are proud to be able to give our passengers a taste of the digital future of travel today.”
For airport operators, the trolleys provide heat mapping, dwell time data and survey capabilities, allowing them to keep a closer eye on passenger flows, a feature that can help avoid bottlenecks in terminals during peak traffic periods.
ITS and Blueprint have also been actively promoting the advantages of using intelligent trolleys in airports. They were at ACI’s Commercial Forum in Munich; at the TRBusiness Consumer Forum in Cyprus; and at TFWA’s Tax Free World Exhibition in Cannes. ITS has already confirmed it will attend TFWA’s exhibitions in Singapore and Cannes in 2023.
Panoke said: “We have found these industry events to be extremely useful in sharing our vision with, and also getting constructive feedback from airport stakeholders.
“Particularly after the pandemic, airports are looking to elevate their retail offers and services, intelligent trolleys have a promising role to play. We look forward to announcing more airport partnerships shortly.” ✈
