A new app – currently available for Apple IOS – has launched today that claims to be the world’s first airport shopping delivery service. If it succeeds, it will also have the capacity to disrupt the duty free and travel retail landscape.

Called SimpliFly, the free app, downloadable here, has been in development for more than a year by a start-up team of two young co-founders: CEO Hongbo Sun, and Chief Design Officer Igor Fernández. The Dublin-based business has the backing of Google Ventures, Intelligentsia Ventures and Enterprise Ireland.

Today, the SimpliFly app covers 62 airport locations in Europe, US and Australia with a browse-and-buy shopping service. However at three of these airport locations in Spain [Barcelona, Valencia and Vigo], SimpliFly is offering a delivery-on-arrival service which DF&TR operators will be closely scrutinising.

A TWO-PART SERVICE

With the SimpliFly app, travellers can use their smartphones to browse, compare prices and then choose products they want to buy from their departure airport at any time before they travel. After saving them to an online ‘wish list’ they can present the list at the duty free departure shop for the items to be collected by store staff and paid for.

That model helps existing DF&TR operators as it brings in customers with pre-planned purchases, thus allowing for efficient transaction times and boosting sales.

However, CEO, Hongbo Sun, has his sights set on a much bigger enterprise of online shopping and collection. He tells TRBusiness: “There are two parts to the service; the other one being premium terminal delivery.”

Costing €7.99/$8.71 per order (but free for orders over €139/$152) SimpliFly can also deliver purchased items to an arrival airport terminal for pick-up by passengers as they leave the landside arrivals hall. TRBusiness understands that this service will be handled via personal couriering.

The latter service, now going under test at the three Spanish airports above, bypasses the DF&TR shops altogether because, at this early stage of the operation, SimpliFly says it will deal directly with the brands in order to ensure the correct products are available for delivery.

Sun notes: “We are a retailer and we are working with the brands. Our prices are the same as, or slightly below those at the airport.” However, he adds that if the service proves popular then he does not rule out working with DF&TR retailers in order to use their logistics platforms to service deliveries under a revenue-sharing model.

STILL SOME HURDLES

In November, at the Global Shopping Forum, SimpliFly’s Chief Design Officer Igor Fernández made the bold statement: “We’ll be the Amazon of duty free.” The giant among online retailers has, in fact, already started down a similar road of delivery-on-arrival using its lockers service at Birmingham Airport. But, so far, it does not appear to have got much further with any new airports.

The SimpliFly model has the benefit of not using airport infrastructure as Amazon does which means no negotiations with an airport landlord are required. Airports, however, will probably not like the fact that they will have limited control of this new service.

The true test for SimpliFly will be the ease of use of the app, the product choice and competitive pricing available and, crucially, the reliability of the deliveries.

Also vital to success will be the ability to tap travellers in large numbers. As well as relying on social media marketing, SimpliFly says it is in advanced talks with (as yet unnamed) airlines to offer its online shopping service via their inflight entertainment systems.

This will give the company access to thousands of extra passengers and the first airline deal is expected to be announced before the end of the year. “Our aim is to have one million users in our first two years,” says Sun.