E-commerce Trends

The biggest up and coming e-commerce trends are in social media and in mobile apps. Mobile apps are a big hit and especially location-based apps such as Foursquare or Facebook Places. The amount of smart phones is increasing all the time, so the companies should also develop some fun or useful apps for the customers. People are really expecting the services to become more personal, efficient and faster. KLM for example has come up with a very witty app called TripShake. You just need to shake your phone and it randomly selects a KLM destination for you and also shows the ticket prices. You can also book the flight directly through the application.

At the moment Finnair has no phone applications available. Finnair could develop an app for buying tax free items already before your flight. Another idea could be an app where you see all of Finnair’s destinations and could explore them as you wish and also make the booking and pay there.  Finnair has plans to end the check-ins for economy class customers so maybe they could make an app for checking in also. I also checked Finnair’s site to see if it’s mobile friendly and it really proved out not to be. So that is yet another thing they should consider changing.

TripShake can be found from this site: http://www.klm.com/travel/fi_fi/plan_and_book/mobile_services/klm_tripshake_app/index.htm

Have a go and enjoy!

Finnair succesfull advertising campaign!

Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps are today's newest forms of marketing.
We try to find out if Finnair have some mobile apps services, without results.
Many of airlines are using these kind of mobile apps. Maybe Finnair could use these kind of services also.
Check These Out:
American Airlines
Turkish Airlines 

Let´s wake up to social media!

During one of the lectures I remember hearing that Finns haven´t yet realized the potential of social media. During the recent year(s) the smartphones, tablet computers and light laptops have become more popular than ever. I think also the companies in Finland are following slowly the trend. This should actually be other way around.

What could an Airline do better in their marketing?
Nowadays there are a lot of airlines in the European market. Consumer can choose their carrier freely according to their preferences, either they want low-cost, specific alliance to redeem miles etc. Also the airlines are slowly trying to differentiate from one another. It doesn´t hurt to have a strong brand either. In this matter Finnair is aiming to be the leading European carrier in Asian market.

What I think influences the final choice of purchase is the timetable, price and the booking process. Though when using for example a price comparison site such as supersaver and the price is same between a non-stop flight and a stopover flight or a low-cost airline and an airline whose loyalty program I belong to, my choice is the one which operates non-stop and the one that I can get mileage points from.

The booking process should be easy and effortless. Maybe in the future we will see a mobile app also from Finnair which could make booking process as easy as a touch in a smartphones screen.

From all the e-commerce tools we have learned so far during the course, the most suitable one could be mobile optimizing and creating an application. The most challenging part with airlines in general is the information flow during rush hours, irregularities and etc.The easier the processes are made the better it is for the customer. Also the Finnair could take it further and add all the processes in the customers path when travelling. All from planning to returning home. How about adding also an application to searching baggage if it´s left behind for some reason? Though it would require some adjustments in the program World Tracer which is being used almost all airlines. Customer could just type their file reference and volá, my bag is on its way with the next flight and will be delivered during the same day! And what about a planning tool for Helsinki combining augmented reality? The sky is the limit!