If merchandising is not part of your business today, then you have no future

Implementing ancillary services through Amadeus has made total sense to our business because we see merchandising as a natural and desirable evolution. With travellers at the forefront of our minds, I have to say that they have been very receptive since bags and seats have become bookable through our website over the past year. They can now fully benefit from the transparency of what is included and what isn’t, what’s available to purchase, and they can personalise their offers by cherry picking the appropriate and relevant ancillaries that fit their needs.

At the same time, implementing ancillary services has empowered us as retailers by improving our ability to efficiently adapt to and support the fare strategies of our partner airlines. We also have the advantage that travellers come to our sites first as they are able to use these as metasearch platforms or Online Travel Agency (OTA) sites depending on their needs.

If we didn’t offer the right merchandising offers, our travellers would go straight to the airlines’ website. In order to retain customers, our role and value is to offer – beyond cheapest fares and best inventory – the same fares that are offered on airlines’ websites, in the best comparable manner. If ancillary services are not part of that offering, a true comparison cannot be achieved.

This is key to supporting our conversion, customer satisfaction, and loyalty objectives.

Offering ancillaries has helped us to solve the fragmentation problem as each airline has, for example, a different definition of what luggage is (in terms of size, weight, etc.) and this allows us to focus more on acquiring customers. Since our implementation of ancillary services through Amadeus, we have seen our bookings soar, and the business impacts are clear. We have increased our customer loyalty through the ability to offer a complete travel proposal, our conversion rates have risen, and all of these benefits have translated into increases in ancillary service revenues and the diversification of our product offering.

The unbundling of services will, without doubt, continue to grow, and we strongly believe that if merchandising is not part of your business today, then you have no future.