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“Disney World has created a central “˜command center’ to monitor and analyze traffic flow, patterns, and congestion, primarily through video cameras and computer simulations, and they manage that flow on a real time basis.“ |
Mick Dawidowicz |
Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a number of fundamental drivers of airport retail performance which haven’t received the attention or thought they deserve, and which, if addressed, could enable the industry to unlock more of its untapped potential.
I’ve talked about some of these in my previous articles, and one that I believe has received particularly little attention is passenger flow management.
Passenger flow management in commercial terms has consisted of only a few elements:
• Retail friendly terminal design to maximize the visibility and prominence of the retail offer as well as exposing as much of the offer to as many travellers as possible.
• Opening up the retail space to channel or allow passenger flow through the stores.
• Setting up temporary retail or promotional stands in the passengers’ path.
• Luggage cart-friendly facilities to make it easier to carry one’s purchases.
• Queue management at security and immigration to minimize waiting times, although I’d bet that where this is done, its purpose is operational, not commercial.
Airports implement these elements to widely varying degrees, but I haven’t seen any airport that implements all of them.
One still encounters terminals where retail looks like an afterthought and queues are so long that you barely have time to make your plane, much less visit the shops.
Except for queue management, the rest are pretty static, that is to say that an airport implements them once or periodically to create the right environment to take advantage of people’s natural behavioral tendencies. They’re not managed on a dynamic or real time basis.
However, that’s not the case everywhere. Not long ago, I ran across an article in the New York Times describing the sophisticated techniques developed to manage visitor flow at the Disney World theme park. They’ve created a central “˜command center’ to monitor and analyze traffic flow, patterns, and congestion, primarily through video cameras and computer simulations, and they manage that flow on a real time basis.
Disney World gets about 30 million visitors per year, and their objective is to minimize waiting times in order to improve customer satisfaction and to grow per capita spending by increasing the number of visits to restaurants and shops – sounds suspiciously like a large airport.
At the same time, but separately, new smart phone applications are being developed which permit real time monitoring of individual passenger movements and allow direct communication with those passengers.
I recently spent some time with the managing director of a young start-up, Switch2Blue (www.Switch2Blue.com), one of the pioneers of this technology, in order to better understand the technology and its benefits, particularly for airport travel retail.
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“It’s inevitable that airports will adopt this technology over time, but I suspect that the driving force will be operational rather than retail.“ |
Mick Dawidowicz |
In basic terms, the application provides real time information on the flow and footfall of passengers carrying Bluetooth enabled devices. Traffic monitoring techniques aren’t new, as the Disney example illustrates, but so far they’ve been aggregate rather than discrete, and a few airports do use them. However, this technology allows the passenger flow manager to know the exact location (to one meter) and movement of each passenger as she proceeds through the airport process.
Moreover, if a traveller opts into the system and enters his/her flight details, that information allows the system to generate a pretty accurate passenger profile in order to send context and profile-based information. And furthermore, if she registers her preferences and/or interests, the messages can be further personalized.
And, since those messages are on the system’s own network, there aren’t any roaming charges.
Down the line, the application would also permit instant payments by storing credit card details in addition to flight information on the passenger’s smart phone. No more fumbling for your boarding pass and credit card, a pet peeve of mine.
Not all passengers carry Bluetooth-enabled devices today. However, since most new phone sales are of Bluetooth equipped smart phones, this number is expected to rise pretty quickly. Moreover, those people who have smart phones are increasingly using them for shopping and leisure activities, and in consumer marketing terms, that’s where the buzz is right now, particularly in the domestic retail business.
As far as airport retailing goes, the benefits of the system really start with passenger opt-in. But clearly, there has to be a reason why. If airports were to offer the time management information I’ve previously talked about, like traffic, parking availability, waiting times at check-in, security, and immigration, then travellers would have some pretty good reasons to opt in.
The technology has the potential to deliver significant benefits to airports in terms of operations, security, and management of their physical assets and staff. This appears to be recognized at the international level by the fact that the Managing Director of Switch2Blue has recently been appointed to the ACI World Information Technology Committee.
The commercial benefits to the Trinity of airports, retailers, and brand owners are also considerable. However, only airports can implement such a system and, more importantly, only they can decide whether to include the retail features in addition to the operational ones.
I think it’s inevitable that airports will adopt this technology over time, but I suspect that the driving force will be operational rather than retail.
What remains to be seen is the extent to which airports exploit the technology’s commercial potential. What a great job for the Chief Retail Officer I imagined last time.
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