Coming soon: In-flight impulse purchases from that seatback catalogue

Here’s something that happens to airline passengers all the time: You have nothing to read, so you browse through the SkyMall catalogue in the seatback pocket. There’s a lot of neat stuff in there, and you come across something that really catches your fancy. But then the plane lands and you forget all about it. But now a new agreement between SkyMall and a company called GuestLogix Inc. will soon make it easy for you to act on that impulse, buying that item on the spot. GuestLogix provides technology for all sorts of automated in-flight transactions, from paying for movies to ordering food or whatever else the airline is peddling. And the new agreement will let the vendor handle SkyMall merchandise orders as well. “Our research shows that 73 percent of our customers made their buying decision on the plane,” said SkyMall president Christine Aguilera. “Making it easy for our customers to ring up their sale at 30,000 feet will help us close more impulse buys.”