Shoppertainment takes off: SKYdeals expands beyond aviation

After five years testing and refining its platform with Air France, Lufthansa Group, Etihad Airways, and La Compagnie, SKYdeals is taking its e-commerce platform, powered by shoppertainment, beyond the aircraft cabin.

The company now offers it to the entire travel retail ecosystem: airports, cruise lines, lounges, and rail operators.

Considering why travel retail need shoppertainment, SKYdeals notes “a paradox at the heart of travel retail: airports dedicate 70% of their space to shopping, yet passengers consistently rank it among their lowest priorities. Traditional duty-free catalogs are declining. Conversion rates stay flat despite record traffic.”

SKYdeals was built on a simple insight: passengers don't need to shop. They need to be entertained. Make shopping the entertainment, and everything changes.

Since 2019, SKYdeals focused exclusively on inflight retail, collaborating with leading

carriers:

• Air France's long and medium-haul connected fleet

• Lufthansa Group's 170-aircraft European network (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss)

• Etihad's premium long-range routes

• La Compagnie's all-business transatlantic service

Each collaboration brought different passengers, routes, and cultural contexts. Each refined SKYdeals’ shoppertainment approach. “The consistent result: when shopping becomes genuinely entertaining, conversion rates multiply.”

How does shoppertainment work?

SKYdeals transforms idle travel time into engaged shopping moments by activating five psychological levers:

• Exclusivity: Deals are only valid during your journey. Not before. Not after. Like a private sale that starts when you board and ends when you land. This creates a unique window where shopping becomes a privilege, not an option.

• Contextual discovery: Offers appear and disappear based on where you are right now. In-flight, FlyOver Deals unlock as you cross countries. At airports, deals change as you move through terminals. On cruise ships, each port brings new surprises. Always fresh, always fleeting.

• Time pressure: Flash sales with countdown timers create urgency. Whether it's 2 hours left on a flight, 45 minutes before boarding, or the last evening at sea, limited time drives action.

• Social dynamics: Group Buying turns strangers into shopping partners. The social environment of a cruise ship or an airport lounge amplifies this mechanic naturally.

• Gamification: Live Auctions transform shopping into entertainment. A captain's dinner at sea, a long-haul flight, a rainy layover: the right moment turns bidding into an event. The mechanics adapt. The psychology stays the same.

What's next for SKYdeals?

The company now offers two paths for travel retail partners:

• SKYdeals Platform: A turnkey e-commerce engine with shoppertainment built-in. Enterprise scale, marketplace-ready, white-label, deployed in weeks.

• Digital Services: Strategic consulting and custom development for operators who want to integrate shoppertainment into existing systems.

Julien Sivan, CEO and Co-founder of SKYdeals, said, "We spent five years mastering the most challenging environment in travel retail: aircraft cabins with limited bandwidth and short time windows. Now we're ready to apply those insights everywhere travelers wait. We're not a retailer. We're not a marketplace. We're the technology that powers your retail strategy."