M1nd-set newsletter: The 4D customer journey - Digitisation, Diversification, Destination and Design.

Digitalisation
If we look at just four elements, or dimensions, impacting the customer journey, the digitalisation of the customer experience is of course the most prominent influencer and disrupter. Enhancements in digital marketing and new technology, with the endless possibilities that this entails, are the foremost catalyst for new ways to build awareness of the travel retail offer and influence the customer journey; through social media, digital interactive screens, virtual and augmented reality and of course the much-talked about metaverse.

At the recent Travel Retail Consumer Forum, co-organised by m1nd-set and TRBusiness, in Cyprus early September, an entire session dedicated to the customer journey revealed some inspiring and innovative ways in which stakeholders can impact the customer journey. These included wayfinding technology with intelligent shopping carts, as illustrated by Intelligent Track Systems and industry agency Blueprint.

The new concept involves interactive screens on shopping trolleys which direct passengers through the airport, providing location specific and personalised flight information as well as location-based adverts tailored to passengers’ personal profiles. The interactive shopping trolleys are already proving to be successfully directing passengers towards, and into the stores, and encouraging browsers to buy at the airports where the trolleys are already in operation. This is just one example of how technology and the digitalisation of the retail offer at an airport can and will play an increasingly pivotal role in steering passengers into the shops and increasing the average transaction value.