Omnevo’s Order-to-Seat: Rail Retail Revolution

Omnevo’s Order-to-Seat Technology Wins Innovation Award, Redefining Onboard Rail Retail

Wiesbaden, Germany – Announced for 2025 Awards Cycle

The railway industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the imperative to enhance passenger experience and optimize operational efficiency. Onboard services, particularly retail and catering, are central to this evolution. Traditional models often present challenges, from passenger inconvenience due to queues and limited access, to operational hurdles for train companies in managing inventory and service delivery effectively. In this dynamic landscape, technological innovation plays a pivotal role. This article will explore how companies like Omnevo are spearheading this change, focusing on their award-winning digital Order-to-Seat solution. This technology, recognized with the Innovation award in the Onboard Retail subcategory at the 2025 Railway Technology Excellence Awards (powered by GlobalData’s business intelligence), exemplifies the shift towards more seamless, personalized, and efficient onboard retail, addressing longstanding issues and setting new benchmarks for service quality in rail travel.

Elevating the Passenger Journey: The Advent of Digital Order-to-Seat

Omnevo’s Order-to-Seat solution directly addresses longstanding pain points in the traditional rail onboard retail model, fundamentally reshaping the passenger experience. The core innovation lies in empowering passengers with control and convenience through their personal digital devices. Passengers can browse dynamic, real-time menus, place orders for food and beverages, and choose their preferred fulfillment method—either direct delivery to their seat or a scheduled pickup from the restaurant car. This capability effectively eliminates the need for passengers to leave their seats, navigate potentially crowded aisles, and endure queues, thereby minimizing disruption to their comfort, work, or leisure time during the journey.

The system is designed with a diverse passenger demographic in mind:

• Commuters can swiftly order morning coffee and pastries without risking losing their seat or juggling belongings.
• Business travelers can pre-order meals, ensuring uninterrupted productivity.
• Families benefit significantly by avoiding the logistical challenges of moving through a train with children to access dining services.
• Tourists on extended journeys can explore various meal combinations suitable for different segments of their travel.
• Even late-night travelers can access available menu items when the restaurant car might have limited service or be closed, thanks to real-time stock visibility.

By providing such accessible and responsive ordering options, the Order-to-Seat solution makes onboard retail more inclusive and tailored to individual passenger preferences and journey contexts.

Optimizing Rail Operations: Efficiency Gains Through Technology

Beyond significant passenger-facing improvements, Omnevo’s technology delivers substantial operational benefits for train operators and their onboard crews. A key feature is its sophisticated real-time inventory management capability. This provides an accurate, live overview of stock levels, which is crucial for minimizing food spoilage and waste—a persistent challenge in catering logistics. It also enables more informed and data-driven restocking decisions, ensuring popular items are available while avoiding overstocking.

The platform’s integration with existing logistics and fulfillment systems further streamlines the entire supply chain. This automation optimizes onboard storage space, reduces the administrative workload for staff, and minimizes the potential for human error in order processing and inventory tracking. Consequently, crew members can reallocate their time from manual tasks, such as stock checks or complex order management, towards providing higher-quality customer service and passenger assistance. The system also contributes to a more comfortable onboard environment by reducing queues and congestion in and around the restaurant car. These operational enhancements align directly with broader industry objectives of improving sustainability, boosting efficiency, and delivering a superior service standard.

Personalization and Profitability: The New Frontier in Onboard Retail

The Omnevo Order-to-Seat solution transcends basic transaction processing by enabling a deeply personalized retail experience, which in turn can unlock new revenue streams for rail operators. The platform’s architecture supports dynamic menu presentation, allowing operators to tailor offerings based on a variety of factors such as time of day, passenger travel class, or journey duration and specific leg. For instance, first-class passengers might be presented with an exclusive selection of premium meal options or complimentary pre-order services, while families could be shown bundled deals for child-friendly meals and snacks. Leisure travelers on scenic routes might see special beverage promotions or themed meal combos.

This level of customization extends to targeted promotions and upselling opportunities. By leveraging passenger data (with appropriate consent and data privacy considerations) and real-time inventory insights, operators can deliver personalized recommendations and offers directly to passengers’ devices. This not only enhances passenger engagement but also strategically encourages higher average transaction values. The ability to curate product bundles, offer time-sensitive deals, or promote high-margin items intelligently helps operators optimize their retail strategy. Such personalized engagement transforms onboard retail from a standard amenity into a dynamic, responsive, and potentially more profitable component of the overall rail service. As Grégory Senaud, Head of Train Services at Omnevo, stated, “This recognition reflects our commitment to transforming the onboard experience through smart, seamless digital tools – not just for passengers, but for crew too. We’re excited to continue supporting rail operators in elevating service and unlocking new opportunities through technology.“

Conclusion

Omnevo’s Order-to-Seat solution, distinguished by the Innovation award at the 2025 Railway Technology Excellence Awards, represents a pivotal development in the ongoing modernization of the rail industry’s onboard retail sector. This digital platform adeptly marries the critical objectives of significantly enhancing the passenger experience with the drive for greater operational efficiency and commercial viability for train operators. For the passenger, the paradigm shifts from a potentially inconvenient necessity to a seamless, integrated service. The convenience of ordering from one’s seat via a personal device, accessing real-time menus, and choosing flexible delivery or pickup options directly addresses modern traveler expectations for comfort, control, and personalization, catering effectively to a wide spectrum of passenger needs, from daily commuters to long-distance tourists.

From an operational standpoint, the advantages are equally profound. The implementation of real-time inventory management drastically reduces food waste and optimizes stock levels, contributing to sustainability goals. Integration with logistics systems streamlines supply chain complexities, reduces the manual workload on crew, and allows staff to dedicate more time to direct passenger interaction and service quality. Furthermore, the platform’s capacity for dynamic pricing, personalized marketing, and targeted upselling strategies not only enriches passenger engagement but also provides rail operators with powerful tools to boost ancillary revenue and improve profitability. By automating critical workflows and delivering actionable data insights, Omnevo’s technology empowers operators to make more informed, sustainable, and customer-centric decisions. Ultimately, innovations like the Order-to-Seat system are instrumental in reshaping onboard services, setting a new standard for how rail companies can meet and surpass the evolving demands of contemporary passengers, thereby fostering a more efficient, enjoyable, and commercially robust future for rail travel.

About Omnevo

Omnevo, founded in 2021 and based in Wiesbaden, Germany, is a travel retail technology developer. The company positions itself as an omnichannel evolution partner for airports, airlines, and rail operators in the travel retail technology space. Specializing in enabling mobility and hospitality providers to maximize ancillary revenue, Omnevo’s modular platform empowers partners to take full control of their retail strategy – across pre-order, in-journey (such as in-flight or onboard trains), and post-travel touchpoints.