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Images and photographs are used stylishly and subtly to enhance the many features of this website. Product photographs are of top quality and are neatly framed within each page. The overall layout is pleasing to the eye |
Website of the week: SAS Flightshop
SAS or Scandinavian Airlines belongs to SAS Group, the Nordic region’s largest listed airline and travel group. Items from SAS Flightshop can be bought onboard, as well as online and the service is part of SAS Webshop, an online shopping facility available to anyone. The Webshop includes SAS promotional items and the usual inflight ranges, but also a diverse array of gift items and household goods.
Style
SAS Flightshop has a professional and pleasant way about it. Laid out on a white background, the website pairs blue and grey effectively. Colours, fonts and alignment of segments are contemporary and elegant.
Images and photographs are used stylishly and subtly to enhance the many features of this website. Product photographs are of top quality and are neatly framed within each page. The overall layout is pleasing to the eye.
Content and usability
SAS Flightshop is part of the main SAS website’s “˜In the air’ features. It can be accessed via the main corporate site or through the separate but related feature of the Webshop (where the clickthroughs were also more reliable than from the SAS corporate pages). The Flightshop homepage highlights five options – Shop on board, Shop online now and Real Deal June, Charter flights and Customer information.
Clicking on Shop on board gives the user access to the airline’s inflight catalogue in downloadable pdf format. There is a good use of pictures, short description of each product, price in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Krone, US Dollars and Euros.
Another option is to shop straight away online, with selected popular features from the range on offer. This section trades heavily on Scandinavians’ love of brands both regional and international, with a strong focus on confectionery, jewellery and watches, plus SAS branded items.
Real deal June spotlights the flavour of the month – gwp: a mini-bottle (10ml) Britney Spears Curious with every purchase of Britney Spears Fantasy fragrance (50ml). A description of the fragrance is given as well as price in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Krone, US Dollars and Euros.
Charter flights opens up an entirely new pre-order website, linked to concessionaire Inflight Service. It is not available in English but because the target market comprises travellers from the Nordic region, this isn’t necessarily a drawback.
Shop online now takes you to the main shopping site of SAS – SAS Webshop. However, apart from the “˜flightshop’ option listed here, all other items are not sold onboard but are web offers only, for sale to travellers and non-travellers alike. This looks an interesting innovation, one based on Nordic customers’ recognition of and trust in the SAS brand.
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To celebrate the launch of our new Travel Retail Web-Wide Index, each week we put the spotlight on one of the growing array of dedicated travel retail websites or web sections. Click here or on the image to read the index. |
(If downloading the Shop on board pdf is not a suitable option, you can browse inflight items on Webshop. There are 13 in total. The same information is provided but in a different, and probably more user-friendly format than the pdf).
You can either buy these Flightshop items onboard itself, or online with home delivery. There is no mention of online ordering with onboard pick-up for scheduled flights (which operate under a different system to charters), so if you’re ordering online and planning to take the goods abroad with you, it’s probably easier to buy them onboard and skip the two-week waiting period.
Other options include selecting another language and currency, how to shop, sales conditions and contact us. A search engine is also provided. This section does an excellent job of showcasing available products, with price, description, photograph and pre-order facility. Product categories include jewellery, house & home and golf, but regular product items – perfumes, cosmetics, alcohol and tobacco – are missing.
How to shop gives step by step details of how to pre-order.
Customer information provides facts on currencies, accepted credit cards, purchasing policies and other useful information.
What we like:
Pleasant style and design
Extensive product showcase
What we think needs improving/ adding:
More reliable clickthroughs from the corporate site
Visit SAS Flightshop.
COMING SOON: The Moodie Report Travel Retail Worldwide Web Awards.
Sponsored by P&G Prestige Products
Which websites offer the best service to consumers? Which are most user-friendly? Which are the most stylish? And which, crucially, offer the greatest incentive to shop?
Every year we will judge, through a combination of industry polling, consumer opinion and specialist judges, who is doing most to wow travellers on the web. International and regional awards.
The main award – Travel Retail Website of the Year – will be unveiled at this year’s ‘Oscars’ of the industry: the Frontier Awards in Cannes. More details coming soon.
MORE WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Website of the week: Belgian Sky Shops – 15/06/06
Website of the week: Finnairshop – 07/06/06
