FlyInStyle is a social travel app company that is building a new smartphone application to give travelers the best of their favorite social apps plus a personal travel assistant all in one.
Americas Duty Free sat down with Amanda Anthony, CEO and Founder of FlyInStyle, to get a sense of how the app can help travelers, retailers and brands alike at airports around the world.
Americas Duty Free: Can you briefly explain your company and your app? What need does it fill and how is it different from what’s currently out there?
Amanda Anthony, CEO and Founder, FlyInStyle: FlyInStyle is developing a social travel application for the airport traveler. Our first product will help travelers find promotions, deals, product launch news, happy hours and more. We are addressing the “pain points” of retailers and airports to help drive traffic to their stores and increase spend per ticket.
On the traveler side we are focusing on taking the “drag” out of airport down time by offering shopping and dining deals. We will continue to evolve with fun new ways to pass the time and connect with others.
Current airport apps are focused on the navigation and logistics part of the trip. FlyInStyle is focused on providing travelers with deals, promotions and event information to entertain and delight them. Some duty free retailers have launched individual apps for their stores as well. Our app will include all concessions across categories globally. We will work with those apps to provide links to help them grow traffic to their websites and apps.
ADF: What advantages does the app provide for travel retailers and suppliers?
AA: FlyInStyle is positioned to launch the smartphone social shopping application for the travel retail industry. Our team has decades of travel retail industry experience so we understand the distinct challenges and needs of airport retailers and restaurants.
FlyInStyle is committed to design the right platform to help address those challenges and build the social relationship between brand, retailer and traveler throughout the globe. We also have a unique opportunity to collect and track the consumer behaviors of airport travelers through mobile, which will help retailers and brands provide more targeted campaigns and hopefully increase the ROI on their promotional activity.
ADF: Are you currently in negotiations with brands or retailers?
AA: We are in discussions with many global brands and retailers, as well as key regional players to partner with us during the design phase and the beta launch. We will formally announce these partnerships with a press release closer to launch.
ADF: It’s been noted that very few travelers use roaming when traveling. Is this is a concern for you?
AA: With any smartphone application, roaming is a concern. The app will work with a wireless connection, even in airplane mode. We are evaluating how much information the traveler will be able to access during flights, for example, when both wi-fi connection and phone service may be absent.
ADF: How did this idea come about?
AA: Working for P&G Prestige gave me many opportunities to hear the issues the industry is facing—the everyday concerns of my customers and of our brands. I thought, “We could use an app to address the challenges of engaging travelers to increase traffic and sales.”
We are using both a lean and agile methodology to develop this product, meaning that we are testing constantly and building in small increments to ensure we are bringing to market only what users want.
ADF: You’ll be at IAADFS, I understand. What are your main goals for the exhibition?
AA: We are focused now on expanding the airport retail, food & beverage and brand partnerships both for the design and the beta launch periods. Because we are testing constantly, we will also use this show to collect feedback on the app, the database, the reporting tool we are creating on the back end and our website. We will involve the industry as much as we can to ensure we are building this app to fit the needs not only of the traveler but of our retailer and brands customers as well.
For more information visit FlyInStyle.co, follow FlyInStlye on twitter @FlyInStyleapp, on Pinterest at https://pinterest.com/flyinstyle and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/FlyInStyleapp.
Share:
