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AOE and Fraport win Award for Best Omnichannel Experience at Magento Imagine 2016

April 13, 2016
Author Christian HolzschuhChristian HolzschuhMarketing & Communications

After receiving two awards at last year’s Imagine Commerce Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, AOE has been awarded for the Best Omnichannel Experience for its Frankfurt Airport project during Imagine 2016 conference in Las Vegas. The award recognizes excellence for the best omnichannel experience across multiple channels. The solution provides passengers with numerous useful on- and offline shopping-, service- and real-time information options; for example, customers can choose from a number of options when ordering merchandise, which can then be delivered to the gate or home, or picked up in-store at the airport.

AOE CEO Kian Gould and Kai Schmidhuber, Senior Vice President Multichannel, E-Commerce, CRM and Strategy, Fraport, received the award during a ceremony on April 12, 2016 in the Wynn Las Vegas. Fraport is the company which operates Frankfurt Airport.

Kai Schmidhuber

Kai Schmidhuber

Senior Vice President Multichannel / Fraport
Together with AOE we were faced with the enormous challenge of transferring our offering into the digital era. The result is a unique solution for the travel industry.

The solution unites complex on- and offline services and provides the optimal travel experience for Fraport’s customers, Schmidhuber adds. AOE impressively demonstrated that they could adapt to all eventualities during the project, while also being able to flexibly implement new ideas not contained in the original concept. “For that, we can only award the highest praise and a big point for respect,” he concludes.

“After being recognized with the Omnichannel Partner of the Year Award as last year’s conference, we are especially proud to be honored with the award for Best Omnichannel Experience this year,” AOE CEO Kian Gould commented. “To date, the Frankfurt Airport project has been the most ambitious and comprehensive project implemented by AOE and therefore represents a major milestone for our company. It’s also a milestone for the travel industry, especially in the retail sector, as it unites more than 30 systems and brings together numerous retailers and service providers in an entirely new and innovative mall concept. Not only is it an industry first, we believe it will fundamentally change how people shop and travel.”

Frankfurt Airport Case Study.

Aviation & Travel

True Innovation Comes Outside The Cabin

One of the biggest emerging trends I have seen in the airline sector over the last couple of years is the concept of passenger self-serve onboard or order to seat. Despite the almost constant discussion at every industry event, the funny thing is, this isn’t really new at all – almost 10 years ago, a former CEO of an onboard retail technology provider proclaimed: “Over time the duty free model will shift to 100% passenger self-service transactions. One of the biggest reasons being the fact that the trolley only comes down the aisle once a journey, for half an hour – in essence the duty free store is only open for half an hour. If I can make transactions myself, through self-service technology, the store is open for the entire flight.” And yet, a decade later, this isn’t even close to the reality on-board most aircraft. During the pandemic, with the need for social distancing, coupled with a desire for innovation, self-service again bubbled to the fore – it gained a new level of relevance. With passengers across all demographics accustomed to ordering everything from groceries to new cars via their phones, digital transactions onboard an aircraft look to be a natural extension of what has become an everyday digital experience. The aviation sector is obsessed (but occasionally intimidated) by digital answers, and there is much that can already be done. Making a digital store available for browsing and even purchasing is achievable, both on IFE and passengers own devices. The process raises a number of operational implications, such as how crew learn of and deliver orders, how payments are handled (particularly if there is no air-to-ground connection) and how this sits alongside the existing cabin service. All of these issues require significant thought and, in some cases investment; and there lies the heart of the problem.