Beyond NDC
Innovating beyond the NDC standard in next-generation retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions
Airlines are laser focused on becoming better retailers. They aim to provide contextually relevant and personalized offers to travelers, as well as optimize their product distribution across all channels. This evolution is driven by the growing importance of ancillary revenue, evolving shopping behaviors and emerging technologies.
IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) is an IATA-defined, data transmission standard that allows for enhanced communication between key players in the travel ecosystem. It offers substantial opportunities such as product differentiation, time to market and shopping transparency. It is where a more personalized airline retail experience for travelers begins. Alone, however, it is only a standard and doesn’t drive innovation.
To truly reimagine retailing, airlines must analyze rich customer data, not just loyalty tier. They must integrate with their operational system to ensure the promise of the offer is fulfilled. They must consider how to differentiate product offerings at all direct and indirect customer touchpoints. Airlines must think beyond NDC.
Beyond CRM
Producing favorable results starts with having a 360-degree view of customers, beyond the information found in their loyalty profile. Leveraging marketplace data from the global distribution system (GDS), airlines can refine future offers by gaining additional insight into demand, competitive offers and options displayed.
Beyond the seat
With foundational data solutions in place, airlines can invest in an intelligent offer-management system that takes inputs from decision science, creates smart seat + ancillary offers and delivers new, engaging shopping experiences that travelers haven’t seen before.
Beyond ticketing
An offer is only as good as the experience you deliver. The airline order-management system is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the offer from order creation to delivery, even during irregular operations.
Beyond connectivity
Airlines and agencies must operate in a hybrid world where NDC and traditional content will continue to be supported. Rich NDC content only delivers value to the ecosystem if all the shopping data (NDC, traditional and low-cost carrier APIs) is properly aggregated, indexed, analyzed and delivered.
Beyond interfaces
Airlines want to differentiate their brand beyond their online storefront and instantly display rich content consistently across all channels. User interfaces must be reimagined to enable brand differentiation and efficient servicing for airlines, comparison shopping for agencies and personalized experiences for travelers.
Learn more about Sabre’s Beyond NDC Strategy.