Google Meets Travel Retail takes place in Hamburg on 7 June.

Technology giant Google will ‘jump-start’ its involvement with global travel retail when it joins forces with Global Shopping Forum (GSF) in a first-of-a-kind industry tie-up this Thursday (7 June).

‘Google Meets Travel Retail: How to bridge the digital gap between travellers and the travel retail industry’ will take place at Google Germany’s headquarters in Hamburg.

For the first time, industry attendees will hear Google’s thoughts and recommendations on the latent digital potential for travel retail in a focused, open forum.

[TRBusiness is the exclusive media partner for Google Meets Travel Retail and will moderate a key afternoon ‘Masterclass’ session on the merits of co-op marketing for brands.]

PRESSING ISSUES ADDRESSED

The event expects to attract a wealth of high profile retailers, operators and suppliers, including L’Oreal, Gebr. Heinemann, Schiphol Airport, Vienna Airport, Coty, Hugo Boss, Z-Zoom, Travel Blue and Maui Jim.

The packed one-day programme features a speaker bill including (but not limited to) Björn Olsson, Senior Vice President – Center Management, Vienna Airport; Pascal Beij, Country Manager Germany, Premier Tax Free; Markus Knauer, Head of Digital Commerce, Gebr. Heinemann; Jonathan Smith, Executive Director, Travel Blue; and Xin Deng, Managing Director, Global Smiling.

A series of ‘deep-dive’ sessions will seek to unbox the following themes:

-Business model & infrastructure: How to leverage technology to future-proof your business. 

-Reaching travellers: How to engage with your audience through platforms (audience targeting for travellers, geo-targeting, CRM and more). 

Delegates will hear from Jan Hieronimi, Industry Manager, Retail, Google.

-Measuring omnichannels: How to understand the consumer journey and optimise for maximum impact (i.e Google Analytics, Google Attribution, store visits). 

-Best cases and experience of airports and brands using multi-channel solutions to bridge the gap between travel retail and travellers.

-In-depth workshops relating to business challenges featuring Google experts.

A plethora of retail industry champions at Google, including Jan Hieronimi, Industry Manager, Retail, Google Germany, will also deliver keynotes at the event. [For a detailed interview with Hieronimi, watch out for the June print edition of TRBusiness, available soon].

Taking his inspiration from a speaker appearance at last year’s GSF, Hieronimi hopes the inaugural event will ‘jump-start’ Google’s engagement with travel retail – an industry the technology conglomerate has said it is keen to increase its involvement in.

Hieronimi says the shift from offline to online modes of retail experimentation, an example being London Heathrow Airport’s use of Google Cloud to develop the Heathrow Airport Guide, is indicative of a willingness to embrace in the next steps for digital evolution. Meanwhile, the industry is already investing in platforms to measure in-store traffic and transactions.

Such digital potential is encapsulated in the so-called ‘micro-moments’ of travellers’ purchase journeys, according to Hieronimi, who believes that travel retailers ‘are not present for all of these’ moments. 

Understanding and investing research and capital in specific channels at particular data points (airports and airlines) will deliver real value, he stresses.

“We think we can play a role in showcasing how digital in general, and Google tools specifically, can support the different business models,” he told TRBusiness. “That’s why we are partnering with the Global Shopping Forum.”

Eli Fel, Managing Director, Travel Blue Germany and Founder of Global Shopping Forum addresses delegates at last year’s event. Source Markus Wache.

‘NOT ALL IDEAS DRIVE VALUE’

That involvement is likely to be made easier now that Google has indicated it will commit resources to the industry.

“To be honest, we might not have played this role (in travel retail) particularly well in the past, because we did not have a specific team working in this industry,” he said. “We want to address this better. That is why we are happy to partner with GSF.”

Asked whether new forms of exploratory technology – geofencing, CRM systems, WiFi beacons, in-store heat mapping – are surefire ways to amass data that delivers ROI, he continued:

“There are for sure a lot of buzzwords and not all new ideas drive value. But generally speaking, there is a lot of value in understanding customer journeys across channels and then making those insights actionable and investing money for the right channels.

“At Google, there are a lot of efforts being made to achieve this: measuring how ad clicks influence store visits, bringing together CRM data and Google AdWords data to measure store transactions, or even using CRM data with Google Analytics.

“These tools are very effective in achieving better ROI, once you start putting money into the channels and ‘moments’ where users want to engage with you.”

The 2018 iteration of the Global Shopping Forum will take place at Düsseldorf International Airport on 8 November.

Titled, ‘The Power of Innovation – How to Bridge the Digital Gaps in the Travel Retail Industry’, the forum will explore retail innovation from operational and marketing viewpoints in an attempt to generate new business opportunities using digital technology. 

To view the full agenda for Google Meets Travel Retail, click here.

For further information on Global Shopping Forum, click here. 

Registration for the Google event has now closed.