How can airports and airlines better integrate their retail business in the future?

Abstract

New technology and advanced customer intelligence enable new opportunities for expanding and improving retail business in air travel. Airlines have extensive customer knowledge and a captive audience that, enabled by digital applications, can be stimulated with smart and entertaining retail opportunities during flight utilising emotional momentum, but they suffer from poor, expensive and limited delivery. While airport retailers excel in inexpensive logistics, they are competing for the attention of busy and nervous customers and have limited customer intelligence. What if the retail business model for air travel could be more (or fully) integrated into an ecosystem, combining the best of both worlds?