The airline teamed up with Samsung to alleviate frustrating moments that occur while purchasing items while flying. The mobile tablet POS system lets flight attendants travel throughout the cabin and complete customers’ purchases in a much more untethered and faster manner.

“Whether in-flight or in-store, mobile POS transactions have become an increasingly efficient and effective way for merchants to execute transactions,” said Ryan Grogman, vice president at Boston Retail Partners. “Regardless of the location, all sales need to be able to be handled quickly and free of errors.

“Customers expect the correct pricing for the correct items and they absolutely expect that the sale is handled securely and promptly with their card issuer,” he said. “By upgrading their mobile POS platform for their planes, Frontier is helping to ensure that their customers can expect the same level of technology and customer service for in-flight transactions that they experience in brick-and-mortar stores.”

Flying with mobile
Flight attendants of Frontier Airlines were given 4G-enabled Samsung Galaxy tablets to take home with them for personal use to get used to the system, making adoption to the new payments system faster and more painless. With up to ten percent of flights seeing issues with past POS equipment, such as dead batteries and malfunctions, Frontier is opting for a more reliable and modern operating system.

In the past, in-flight purchases could take up to a month to post to customers’ accounts, and in the fast-paced, on-demand environment of the mobile-enabled industry, this is unacceptable in the eyes of consumers. The new system allows for real-time transactions.

More than 1,300 flight attendants were given the tablets, and customers can now purchase in-flight products through the new POS. Frontier’s research shows the new system will pay for itself within the six months, due to cost savings and projected increase in sales.

Mobile POS
Accessories retailer Fossil similarly forged a more personal and streamlined in-store experience with a mobile point-of-sale system that employees can access on a variety of devices (see more).

WeChat also positioned itself as a significant competitor in mobile payments via a partnership with point-of-sale system provider Givex that enables customers of merchants to pay in store by scanning a QR code appearing in the application (see more).

“This increased ability to create an enhanced persona-based experience combined with the ability to reduce hardware costs almost guarantees that we will continue to see the expansion of mobile technology in stores,” said Perry Kramer, vice president and practice lead at Boston Retail Partners. “With mobile devices being less expensive, more flexible and capable of replacing fixed devices, we are seeing many retailers opt for more mobile devices when it is time to replace existing fixed POS devices and for new implementations.”