‘Add To Cart’ Podcast: How Brisbane Airport built an E-Commerce Marketplace in 2 weeks

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries started to impose travel restrictions and Australia was no exception. Besides airlines, retailers with storefronts in airports relying on the foot traffic from passengers took a major hit. For instance, Brisbane Airport Corporation saw its foot traffic drop by 96% once flying restrictions kicked in. 

In this podcast episode, Nathan Bush (founder of E-Commerce consultancy 12HIGH) invited Mike Doyle, Head of Consumer Marketing of Brisbane Airport Corporation, to share how his team successfully built an e-commerce marketplace from the ground in just two weeks.  

“ Mike and the Brisbane Airport Team showed how agile and responsive you need to be in eCommerce to turn setbacks into opportunities. Their focus on helping their retailers with new channels is a fantastic leadership position I hope we see more malls and marketplaces take. ” — Nathan Bush, 12HIGH

Faced with the threat of not being able to sell for an indeterminate period of time, the Brisbane Airport team chose a marketplace solution that would allow them to onboard multiple vendors within the shortest amount of time. 

The results were astounding. In just 16 days, physical stores were turned into a 6-figure earning e-commerce marketplace, saving 25 jobs which would have been lost otherwise. 

Find out more by listening to the podcast episode on Spotify now!

Questions answered in the podcast include:

• What options did Brisbane Airport consider to combat the 96% loss of foot traffic?

• What were some of the challenges in making such a significant change so quickly? 

• What technology are you using? 

• How long did it take and how much did it cost to get the site up and running? 

As Mike Doyle, General Manager of Brisbane Airport Corporation said: 

“If you can figure out a way of trying, you should try,” 

For businesses dragging their feet ongoing digital, this is the perfect example of how easily it can be done. 

About Add to Cart Podcast 

Join Nathan Bush from 12HIGH and an E-Commerce industry expert every month on the latest news, research, and insights that you need to know to keep you at the top of your E-Commerce game.  

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