AtYourGate: Mobile app shopping takes off at airports

NEWSBYTE: Travellers, flight crews, and personnel at San Diego International Airport (SAN), will be able to use a new mobile app to order food and other products and have them delivered directly to the departure gate.

AtYourGate describes itself as an “in-airport personal shopper”. The Californian start-up has teamed with Canadian mobile ordering platform GOLO (part of payment platform provider Paysafe) to launch the service, which the companies plan to extend to other airports in North America and Europe.

The app links participating airport outlets with deliveries to departure gates and other locations within terminals, and is targeted at both passengers and employees who have little time to spare before boarding flights.

Paysafe believes that the new app will also help to expand the brand visibility of the airport’s many concessions.

AtYourGate launches with eight participating restaurants and retailers, with 25 more expected to join before the end of 2018. Saffron Thai, Artisan Market, Panda Express, Qdoba Mexican, Jack-in-the-Box, CNBC News and Gifts, Elegant Deserts, and Donut Bar are the brands onboard so far.

“Consumers and merchants today expect a frictionless and sophisticated retail experience when making purchases, or selling using their mobile technology,” said Jean-François Noël, CEO of GOLO.

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“They want to see the products accompanied by visually rich images, in a smooth app where searching is intuitive and there is a secure way to transact. That’s what is offered through the new AtYourGate, powered by GOLO, app.”

AtYourGate is currently available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

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Internet of Business says

Frictionless shopping, and apps that blend bricks and clicks into a seamless, omni-channel service are an important retail trend that’s focused on customer demand.

As our recent reports on retail IoT have explored, innovative use cases for IoT technologies are not so much about replacing traditional shopping, as enhancing it and creating new relationships between brands and their cash-rich, time-poor – and frequently disloyal – customers.

Throw in the time pressures, security checks, and stressful environment of a busy airport, and this app is a clever solution that – like many connected ideas – shares the benefits among a network of partners.

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