Airport operator company, Malaysia Airports, with interests in Turkey, India, and South Asia, is working with Fusionex on a proof-of-concept: to develop a Business Intelligence platform to further enhance Malaysia Airports’ retailer management system within KLIA and provide value-added services for travelers.
Introduction
Malaysia Airports is an airport management company with a portfolio of almost 40 airports in and around South Asia and Turkey. Apart from the aeronautical business, the client also manages other portfolios including duty-free & retail operations, hotels, free commercial zones, commercial space leasing, and management of parking facilities. It also runs global training centers regarding airport management, airport fire & rescue services, and aviation security.
The Challenge
Malaysia Airports sought to enhance its customer data collection methods and determined to increase the accuracy of gathered information on the performance of its retail units within KLIA. This involves an approximately 400,000 square foot containing retail outlets at various locations including the arrival and departure halls as well as check-in counter areas. These outlets/locations see a fluctuating amount of shoppers at different times and days of the week.
Malaysia Airports aims to ramp up its data collection frequency near the shops area. A higher degree of prompt data collection would serve to accurately determine when promotional activities should be held, or if they were held – what their projected results would be. Accuracy of information garnered from this area is important to determine the customers’ hotspots and their spending trends.
A precise method to track spending trends at the terminal would allow Malaysia Airports to identify local shoppers and international travelers apart. This would also result in a more informed decision being made with regards to what the retail composition should be – whether the terminal should host more shops selling food, garments, souvenirs, or other goods base on the shoppers spending pattern and behaviour.
The Solution
A combination of the Fusionex Business Intelligence platform together with Internet of Things (IoT) devices was utilised to collect and manage the terminal’s retail data. Sensors were installed at the main terminal building’s arrival and departure halls and the contact piers for international and domestic flights.
Sensors are also placed in and around the airport’s retail sections to determine hotspots where the most retail activity occurred. The sensors are functioning independently without requiring wiring or lengthy installation methods. Among the sensors used were those with Bluetooth capabilities and Wi-Fi detection capabilities installed in collaboration with solution provider Tapway.
A mobile application was developed to track the basic demographic background of customers including details such as gender and nationality. A campaign was conducted to encourage travelers to sign up for the mobile app. The app could then use the demographic information to craft personalized marketing messages and promotions for the customers.
Using a wide set of connectors, various type of data set and system can be integrated into single platform with speed and ease. The dashboard reporting is then rendered automatic as well, giving the client the ability to view revenues in near real time. These endeavors were supported and co-funded by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
The Benefits
The ability to receive performance data from their existing tenants quickly, together with traveler information from installed sensors, allowed Malaysia Airports to make more accurate decisions:
Understand traveler habits and shopper behavior, preferences. Malaysia Airports will be able to determine travelers’ flow and identify trends of unique shoppers via the installed sensors. Other than that, demographic data such as gender, date of birth and nationality will also be gathered to help Malaysia Airports understands which retail outlets appeal the most to which groups of people. This provides insights into what composition of retail outlets would be optimum in the airport – whether or not certain shops fit, and whether they fit better in domestic or international halls.
Ability to perform more accurate marketing efforts. Passengers’ traffic data gathered, which could be drilled down to daily and even hourly, could inform Malaysia Airports when would be the right time to hold promotional and marketing events within the terminal. Connectivity via travelers’ mobile devices provides a possibility for future marketing undertakings such as customer-specific push notifications. When walking near a particular shop which the traveler might be interested in, the platform pushes a notification to their phones for a promotion on items or services available.
Summary
By utilizing IoT devices and gathering useful data on a centralized system, Malaysia Airports is able to get a good overall view of its airport’s retail sector. Being provided with user-friendly BI dashboards also enable management-level personnel to get quick looks at the information to make timely and accurate data-driven decisions.
Industry: Aviation / Retail
Big Data Solutions Provider: Fusionex is an established multi-award winning IT software group that specializes in Analytics and Big Data. Their business is to help clients manage, make sense of and derive useful insights and information from the vast amounts of structured and unstructured data at their disposal. Fusionex is focused on bridging the gap between business and technology, and in doing so, providing an exceptional and positive experience to customers of various markets.