Shopping High

Dear Reader,

Its been a while since I've blogged. I can't think of any one excuse and there certainly are myriad number of reasons for not having the time to sit down and write one. However, I've had some interesting experiences in the past couple of months worthwhile sharing. Once such experience was on a trip to Seattle for a week and what I learned about people's shopping habits while traveling.

I was waiting to board my flight in Hyderabad getting ready for the long flight and noticed a young woman swiping through apparel after apparel on her smart phone. I couldn't identify which mobile app she was using and what was the e-commerce company but I could see that she was searching for something specific - a specific kind of dress.

It looked like she was unable to find it and it was soon time to board the flight. She had to put away her smartphone. I didn't see her again until the flight took off. Once in the air and after the seat belt sign was turned off. I took the liberty of walking around a bit to see if I can spot her. Unfortunately, I couldn't and had to return to my seat. However, I kept wondering, given an opportunity would she have continued her shopping experience on the flight?

Most activities on a long haul flight center around, eating, watching something on the In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system, listening to music, sleeping, reading, using an electronic device (such as a laptop, tablet device, portable DVD player, etc.) and such. Shopping is not a big activity primarily because there isn't a wide ranging collection of items to shop from. The prices too seem unreasonable in some cases. Shopping is one way to spend time on a long boring flight. Better still, if it is part of the IFE then it makes it that much more easier to look for something that you want to buy. And what could be better than using a more familiar e-commerce experience to shop.

After my trip, I spent some time understanding the in-flight experience industry and below are links to some research reports.

Global IFE Market Overview
The Future of Airline Retail - The Quest for Growth

Albeit old, the reports do throw some interesting insights on how airline passengers spend their time in-flight.

Connectivity will certainly bring new experiences to airline passengers. With connectivity a means to shop "in the air" or "Shopping High" will be a reality. But what makes the "Shopping High" experience memorable is when one can promise a delivery on a certain day/time and at a certain location. This also throws some interesting questions -

• Can one promise delivery when the plane lands? It could be on the shorter leg of a multi-hop longer flight or it could be on the longer leg itself.
• Maybe the package is too big for the customer to carry from the airport hence wants it to be delivered to their home the next day (airline passengers are typically in a rush to get home after a long flight and may not even want to have the extra luggage to carry home).
• Maybe they forgot to buy a gift for someone and want to order something that will be gift wrapped. 
• Maybe they just want to look at what's new and interesting.

On the whole, its the complete experience that will make in-flight shopping a maker or breaker of a new market segment for e-commerce companies. Who knows, one might get more orders when the customer is in the air than when they are on the ground.

So, what would be the first thing you'd order on a Shopping High! Let me know in the comments section. Do drop me a note if you find some interesting reports on the same topic.

Until next time.

Regards,

Jyothin